Shoes, slippers and abuses were hurled at the Uttar Pradesh Congress headquarters in Lucknow on Sunday as a slogan against outgoing state unit president Ajay Rai triggered chaos and a scuffle just before new state chief Aradhana Mishra formally took charge from her predecessor.
Upset with the scuffle, Ajay Rai staged a sit-in at the party office following which senior leader and Rajya Sabha member Pramod Tiwari came to him. Later, state Congress working president Imran Masood and Aradhana Mishra too met him. She was addressing her first press conference after assuming charge along with State Congress working president Imran Masood. “The BJP’s chariot of arrogance was stopped in UP only during the Lok Sabha elections that compelled it to walk with the support of its allies.
Imran Masood said the decision regarding seat-sharing alliances will be taken at the appropriate time, and the Congress and SP will join forces to form the government in Uttar Pradesh in 2027. The people of Uttar Pradesh will finally uproot the BJP in 2027 and our alliance will form the government,” Mishra said.
She also said top leaders of the parties concerned (Samajwadi Party and Congress) are working on an alliance and seat-sharing will be decided soon.
The incident took place in the afternoon when the woman office bearer, who is also a councillor, reportedly raised the slogan against Rai as soon as he arrived and was climbing the staircase to enter the state chief’s office. The situation escalated as shoes and slippers were allegedly thrown. State Congress working president Imran Masood tried to control the situation, which remained tense for at least 30 minutes before Rai left the campus. Uttar Pradesh Congress president Aradhana Mishra on Sunday said the BJP, which suffered a setback in the state during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, will face the same fate in the upcoming assembly polls.
By then, Rai had moved ahead of her.The slogan reportedly irked Rai’s “supporters” who resorted to a scuffle.
