Ahead of UP polls, Aradhana Mishra replaces Ajay Rai as state unit chief

The Congress has appointed Uttar Pradesh Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra as the new president of its state unit, replacing Ajay Rai. Congress MP from Saharanpur Imran Masood has been appointed working president.

The changes are part of the party’s organisational restructuring in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the Assembly elections.

Aradhana Mishra is the MLA from Rampur Khas in Pratapgarh district. She is the daughter of veteran Uttar Pradesh Congress leader Pramod Tiwari, who represented the Rampur Khas constituency nine times between 1980 and 2012.

After Pramod Tiwari became an MP in 2014, Aradhana Mishra won the Rampur Khas bypoll. She retained the seat in the 2017 Assembly elections, defeating BJP candidate Nagesh Pratap Singh by nearly 17,000 votes. The Congress subsequently appointed her as the party’s Legislature Party leader in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.

Mishra has been associated with Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi and accompanied her during visits to the families of women and other victims of various incidents in districts including Hathras, Unnao, Umbha, Sidharthanagar and Lakhimpur Kheri.

During the run-up to the 2022 Assembly elections, Mishra also accompanied Priyanka Gandhi during the Congress's women-focused campaign, “Larki hun, lar sakti hun”.

Mishra holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and a Master’s in Business Administration. She had also served as a block pramukh for three terms from 2001.

Ajay Rai, a Bhumihar leader from eastern Uttar Pradesh, had been appointed state Congress chief in August 2023, replacing Dalit leader Brijlal Khabri. Rai contested the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi. In the 2024 election, he reduced Modi’s victory margin.

The latest appointments are part of a series of organisational changes within the Uttar Pradesh Congress. In July, the AICC replaced Avinash Pande as the party’s general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh with Rajendra Pal Gautam, who heads the Congress Scheduled Castes Department.

Last month, the party also appointed Kunwar Singh Nishad as chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee’s Media and Publicity Department.