34 women from UP sent to AICC
As many as 34 women leaders belonging to different castes and communities have become AICC members from Uttar Pradesh. Their empowerment could certainly pose a threat to the BSP led by chief minister Mayawati.
The Congress on Thursday released the list of AICC members from the state at a time when its opponents — the BSP and the SP — have been dominated by one caste while the BJP is facing an identity crisis.
Though the representation for women is sizeable in UP led by a woman PCC chief, it is still less than 33 per cent.
Party leaders said that 37 AICC members from the state were yet to be selected.
This is for the first time so many women have found a place among AICC members from the state, AICC Secretary Avinash Pande said.
Besides Congress President Sonia Gandhi herself, the women members include PCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, party MPs Ratna Singh and Anu Tandon and former MPs Noor Bano and Satya Behan.
AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi as also several Union ministers, including Salman Khurshid, Sriprakash Jaiswal, Jitin Prasada, R.P.N. Singh and Pradeep Jain, are among the AICC members.
Party MPs Jagadmbika Pal, Raj Babbar, Azharuddin, Praveen Aron, Harshavardhan Singh and Kamal Kishore as also Rajiv Shukla from the Rajya sabha are among the members so also state CLP leader Pramod Tiwari and deputy CLP leader Pradeep Mathur.
The Congress president has asked state units to make earnest efforts to ensure that women constitute one-third membership of the AICC and Pradesh Congress Committees.
There are around 1,000 AICC members from all over the country who form the electoral college for the all powerful Congress Working Committee. Elections for the CWC are scheduled on November two at the meeting of the AICC here.
Almost a decade back, Mrs Gandhi had been instrumental in ensuring one third reservation for women at all levels in the organisation and Congress has been the first major national party to implement it.
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