Lucknow, Jul 29 (IANS): Interim Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday appointed district and city party presidents for 17 districts in Uttar Pradesh.

The Congress president has appointed heads of party units in Lucknow, Bahraich, Gonda, Gonda city, Badaun , Badaun city, Pilibhit, Kasganj, Mirzapur, Gorakhpur, Sonbhadra, Jalaun, Azamgarh, Unnao, Lakhimpur, Modinagar (Ghaziabad) and Mughalsarai (Chandauli).

In February this year, Sonia Gandhi had approved the proposal for creating new city Congress Committees in Azamgarh, Sultanpur, Robertsganj (Sonbhadra) districts in Uttar Pradesh.

In October last year, the Congress had revamped the party's Uttar Pradesh unit, appointing party MLA Ajay Kumar Lallu as its chief and Aradhana Mishra as the leader of the legislative party.

The Congress in UP has been saddled with a non-existent organisation and is fraught with infighting.

The appointment of district presidents is now being seen as an effort by the party high command to strengthen the organisational base of the party, ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

The Congress will also test the waters when it contests the panchayat elections, scheduled to be held at the end of the year.