Rahul Gandhi, it appears, has little confidence in the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) going by his decision to deploy a parallel team to assist him in the 2012 assembly polls.
The Congress general secretary has chosen a 10-member team of his trusted men drawn from across the country to help him prepare a panel of potential candidates to take on the might of Mayawati.
Normally, the state unit of the party recommends names of potential candidates.
But showing little confidence in the UPCC, he has chosen his own team to prepare confidential reports of all 403 assembly seats. Three prospective candidates will be shortlisted from each constituency.
Rahul's show of no-confidence in the state unit apparently stems from its apparent failure to mobilise masses for the ' Rath Yatra' flagged off by him from Ambedkar Nagar on April 14.
The concern of the Gandhi scion is not unfounded as the state leaders had suspended the 'rath yatra' two weeks ago on the pretext that people were not turning up because of the excessive heat.
They say it will be restarted when the "weather improves". But at the same time, they invited Rahul to Mirzapur on May 18 to give the yatra a boost.
Initially, Rahul had decided to let the state leaders manage the yatra . But seeing their lax attitude, he has decided to get involved and will address more rallies in Bundelkhand and eastern UP in the second half of June.
Party sources said the team members - three each from MP and Haryana, two from Maharashtra and one each from Rajasthan and Gujarat - have been told to keep away from local Congressmen and meet up people to gauge the impression of the party and its leaders in the state.
"They have been asked to search for new talents and also look for potential rebels with a clean image in other parties," said a Congress leader, who refused to be named.
The presence of 10 observers chosen by Rahul was confirmed by UPCC president Rita Bahuguna Joshi. "We know about it and appreciate the effort of Rahul Gandhi. While they would be preparing a list of candidates, we would also prepare our list. We hope the best from both the lists would finally get the ticket," she said.
But Congress sources said the decision of Rahul was influenced by a report of Congress general secretary in-charge of UP, Digvijay Singh, who told the Gandhi scion there was discontent against Joshi's leadership.
The dissatisfaction of the central Congress leadership reached the surface in February this year when Joshi's decision to replace Maruf Khan with Muid Ahmed as chairman of the minority cell of the state unit and Vinod Chaudhary with Sidh Gopal Sahu, as chief of the OBC cell, was reverted by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Earlier, Deepak Gupta, a former treasurer of UPCC had registered a complaint with Digvijay that Joshi was misusing party funds.
But Joshi said, "There is no difference among the party leaders. We all want to win the election." P. L. Punia, Congress MP from Barabanki said, "It is true that some observers from outside have been asked by Rahul to take stock. But I think they will coordinate with the local leaders before preparing their list and submitting their report to him."
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