The Hindu : Munna named UPCC chief

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Friday, Jul 05, 2002

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Munna named UPCC chief

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 4. The month-long speculation over the post of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president following the resignation of the incumbent, Sri Prakash Jaiswal, ended on Wednesday with the appointment of two-time Minister, Arun Kumar Singh Munna, to the post.

The appointment of Mr. Munna as UPCC president was announced at the routine briefing here yesterday afternoon by the AICC treasurer, Motilal Vora, who is also in charge of U.P. affairs. Later, Mr. Vora told mediapersons that the new committee would be in place by the month-end at the latest.

About factionalism within the U.P. unit of the party, the senior Congressman said "those differences ended on June 20 when over a hundred State leaders converged in Delhi for a day-long brainstorming session, and committed themselves to work unitedly to rebuild the Congress in the State''. On his part, Mr. Munna dismissed questions on the appointment of a working president and said "there would be no need for such a post''. Of the view that the Congress had lost out in U.P. because of its own people, he did not see much of a challenge in the recently appointed BJP State unit president, Vinay Katiyar.

The proverbial dark horse, Mr. Munna's name did not figure in the speculations that preceded today's announcement. Hitherto the frontrunners for the post were said to be the former UPCC president, Salman Khursheed; the Congress Legislature Party leader, Pramod Tewari; and senior leaders, Noor Bano, Jagdambika Pal and Harikesh Bahadur.

His appointment is part of the Congress effort to woo back the upper castes; particularly with the sidelining of Rajnath Singh following the BJP-BSP tie-up. Given Mr. Munna's Thakur moorings, the Congress is hopeful of having covered the upper caste ground well as other top party positions are already represented by Brahmins.

Though Mr. Munna is being billed by some within the party as an answer to Mr. Katiyar's brand of politics, both Mr. Vora and the newly appointed UPCC president dismissed this argument and maintained that the BJP State president did not "bother'' the Congress. "We will work according to our own strategy to tackle the communal agenda.''

But for a temporary parting of ways when he moved to Congress (Tiwari) when senior Congressmen, Arjun Singh and N. D. Tiwari, broke away from the party, Mr. Munna has been with the Congress since his college days.

e was the president of the Allahabad University Students Union, the Deputy leader of the House in the U.P. Assembly in 1977, president of the U.P. Youth Congress in the mid-1970s, and general secretary of the Indian Youth Congress.

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