Gearing up for the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh scheduled early next year, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi has convened a meeting of state party leaders tomorrow for a strategy session at which poll strategist Prashant Kishor is expected to be present.
Party sources said 30-35 state leaders have been called for deliberations being held at a time when the AICC has held consultations with DCC Presidents and block Congress Committee chiefs on candidates' selection.
AICC General Secretary Madhusudan Mistri has toured several districts for getting a feedback on ways and means to make the organisation fighting fit after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in which only party chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi could get elected from the state.
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Kishor was one of the key backroom players for Narendra Modi when he was the chief minister of Gujarat and also in the last Lok Sabha polls when he was BJP's prime ministerial candidate. Kishor was also the strategist behind Nitish Kumar's campaign strategy in Bihar assembly poll last year.
Congress has been out of power in UP for over 26 years. The state was its stronghold till 1989 but the the Mandal and Ram Mandir issues and the rise of BSP sharply eroded the party's base.
There has also been a buzz that the Congress could field
its top guns in the assembly polls, including some of its MPs, especially those who had been Union Ministers in UPA I and II governments.
Kishor, who is known for building his campaign strategy around strong personalities, is learnt to be keen that Congress should project a face in the state as it could galvanize the cadres.
Key pladers in the state-- Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party led by Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati--are personality driven and have their strong vote bases, while Congress, which has been out of power in the state for nearly-three decades, suffers from a leadership crisis.
In the last Lok Sabha elections, Congress could win only in two places with party chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul retaining their traditional Raebareli and Amethi seats.
A source involved in the planning for the state elections said the party will fight the polls as if it were fighting the 2019 general elections.
"We will have a Brhamin face backed by a combined support of some other upper castes, Muslims and non-Jatav dalits," the source said.
There are issues in the party at the grassroots level due to infighting and a demoralized cadre.
Kishor has tried to get feedback on the organisational shortcomings that led to poor show of the party in the 2012 assembly polls, barely three years after it had won 21 seats in 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
