Aradhana Misra Mona faced chaos on her first day as the new Uttar Pradesh Congress chief. Supporters of the outgoing leader Ajay Rai fought with her loyalists, throwing shoes and shouting slogans. Mamta Choudhary said, "We are feeling very disheartened." Senior leaders tried to calm the angry party workers down.

New Delhi:

Aradhana Misra Mona, the new chief of the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh, ran into her first challenge on her first day at work when supporters of the outgoing chief began fighting with those who are loyal to her.

Mamta Choudhary, the chief of the party's Madhya Pradesh women's wing, also came under verbal attack while attending the event to install the new UP Congress chief. "We are feeling very disheartened," Choudhary said.

It began when supporters of Congress leader Ajay Rai, who Mona replaced, began raising slogans against her during the event to mark her ascension.

Soon, her supporters added to the decibel with showering praises on her and faced-off with the other group.

Visuals of the chaos that unfolded at the event have been shared widely on social media. The party workers threw shoes at one another and engaged in a standoff with both sides pushing and heckling the other.

Amid the shouts, Congress leaders including Mona's father Pramod Tiwari, who is a Rajya Sabha MP, and Imran Masood, the party's working president in UP, tried to placate both sides.

Tiwari was seen with his hands folded speaking with the outgoing UP Congress chief.

Rai later welcomed his successor with a bouquet to indicate everything had been taken under control, while other Congress leaders downplayed the ruckus. He declined to comment on the matter.

"There is nothing much for me to say. I am an ordinary party cadre who will continue to put in my best for the party," he said, adding he she would take the party to "new heights."

Rai has complained to the party leadership that he was insulted during the event. The leadership has assured him that action would be taken against those responsible.

Mona faces an uphill task for the UP assembly elections in 2027, as the party has been out of power in UP since 1989. In the 2022 assembly elections, the Congress won only two of the 403 seats in the state, failing to win from Amethi and Raebareli that at one point were seen to be their strongholds.

The leadership change in the UP Congress in which Rai, a Bhumihaar, was replaced by Mona, a Brahmin, has led to speculation that the party aimed to ensure the alliance deal with the Samajwadi Party went through smoothly.

Rai had been UP Congress chief since August 2023.