UP polls: Blow for Congress as state vice president Lalitesh Tripathi is set to join SP

In a setback for Congress ahead of the UP polls, sources indicated that its state vice president and former MLA Lalitesh Pati Tripathi has resigned from the party. He is the great-grandson of late Congress veteran Kamalapati Tripathi who served as the Chief Minister of UP from April 1971 to June 1973. Moreover, his father Rajesh Pati Tripathi was elected to the Legislative Council on a Congress ticket. Having served as the Marihan MLA between 2012-2017, Lalitesh Pati Tripathi was appointed as the UP Congress vice president in 2019 and was made in charge of 13 districts of the state.

The young leader has suffered a setback in recent years though with his failure to retain the Marihan seat in the 2017 Assembly election and his loss to Union Minister Anupriya Patel in the 2019 General Election from Mirzapur. As per sources, he is likely to join Samajwadi Party very soon. While the Sonia Gandhi-led party is yet to confirm the news of Tripathi's resignation, the latter has given a big hint by removing any mention of Congress in his Twitter bio. 

Congress' UP election campaign

In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, BJP won a whopping 312 seats in the 403-member House, whereas BSP could win only 19 seats. On the other hand, the SP-Congress alliance failed to bear fruit as it could win in only 54 constituencies. While this was seen as a mandate for PM Modi as BJP had not declared any CM candidate, Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath was a surprise pick for the post.  Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra faces an uphill task of reviving the party in UP where it won only 7 seats in the 2017 Assembly polls. 

Addressing the media on September 12, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid indicated that the party may not project Vadra as the CM face before the election. Revealing that Congress will contest all 403 seats in the state, he added, "The party will not form an alliance with any party. We will contest the elections with firm belief. Party workers will go to each constituency to know the problems being faced by the local people". To bolster its chances, Congress has decided to embark on a 12,000 km-long yatra 'Hum Vachan Nibhayenge Pratigya' (we will fulfill our promises) Yatra across the state. As a part of this mass outreach initiative, this Yatra will cover major villages and towns.