http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&theme=&usrsess=1&id=171449
Cong plays caste card in UP Statesman News Service NEW DELHI, Sept. 25: The Congress knows that it cannot prosper unless it becomes a challenge in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. And with Mr Rahul Gandhi now in the big league, he needs a well knit organisation in UP. The party has embarked upon its own form of social engineering in the state. It has replaced Mr Salman Khursheed, a Muslim, with Mrs Rita Bahuguna Joshi, a Brahmin, as state party chief. That Mr Khurseed would be replaced in the aftermath of the disastrous Assembly polls, was obvious. The change has been synchronised with the party reshuffle. As the Congress was losing its support base, particularly to the BSP, the counter efforts, apart from bringing Mr Gandhi to centre-stage, are nominating a Brahmin and a woman as party chief and making Mr Digvijay Singh, a Thakur, as organisational in charge of the state. The focus thus is on the upper castes. The leader of the legislature party, Mr Promod Tewari, is also a Brahmin. The BJP has a Brahmin chief and Mr Satish Mishra is the Brahmin face of the ruling BSP. The restructuring of the Congress organisation is designed to meet the challenge from caste-based regional forces. In the Assembly polls, the Congress remained on the margins, despite Mr Gandhi being in the picture. People decided in favour of Miss Mayawati as a strong alternative to Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party. In the process, the Congress won less than 25 seats. The tally could have been worse had Mr Gandhi not been to electioneering. Mrs Joshi's recent track record has been poor. She was a loser in Allahabad South Assembly constituency. However, her nomination as party chief in the state has been met with a chorus of approval. State level leaders have declared that the appointment will "recharge" the party. Mrs Joshi is the daughter of the late chief minister Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna. However, she has hardly been active in the mainline politics of the state and her detractors say she belongs to the same breed as Mr Khursheed ~ more active in Delhi than in Lucknow.
