The Congress Party on Saturday appointed senior leader Avinash Pandey as the general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Responding to his appointment, Avinash Pandey wrote in a post on X, ‘I pledge to carry forward the legacy of Priyanka Gandhi. As General Secretary in-charge, I will discharge the powers vested in my post and the responsibility given to me.
Avinash Pandey is a former Rajya Sabha MP of Congress. He was in-charge of the party in Jharkhand before being made the general secretary in-charge of UP. He is also a member of the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision-making body of the Grand Old Party. Avinash Pandey, originally from Nagpur, Maharashtra and a lawyer by profession, has reached leadership positions in the Congress by serving on various posts in the party’s student wing NSUI and Youth Congress.
During his decades-long political career, he held various positions in the party at the state level and national level. He was elected as Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra in 2010. Avinash Pandey has also been a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council and a member of many administrative committees in the state. He was appointed in-charge of the state before the 2018 Rajasthan elections.
Avinash Pandey is familiar with UP politics
However, he was removed from the post during the fierce tussle between Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot. Subsequently, in January 2022, he was appointed as AICC general secretary in-charge of Jharkhand. Avinash Pandey is the young Brahmin face of the party. He is considered to be from Rahul Gandhi’s camp. When senior Congress leader Madhusudan Mistry was in-charge of UP, he used to be the co-in-charge here. Since he has worked in UP, he is aware of the politics here.
Congress is overhauling its UP team
Let us tell you that Congress is overhauling its entire leadership in Uttar Pradesh. Recently, the party had made Ajay Rai the UP Congress President. Under his leadership, a new executive of the party has also been formed in the state, in which 16 vice presidents, 38 general secretaries and 76 secretaries have been made. Youth have got preference in the new Congress team in Uttar Pradesh, and about 67 percent of the office bearers are below 50 years of age. Congress has also tried to solve the caste equation by giving leadership opportunities to extremely backward classes, other backward classes, Dalits and minorities.
