Lucknow: An unscheduled visit by a group of Dalit Congress functionaries to BSP chief Mayawati’s Lucknow residence on Tuesday evening turned awkward for the party after she declined to meet them.The Congress top brass subsequently distanced itself from the outreach, issuing notices to Congress MP Tanuj Punia and SC department national chairman Rajendra Pal Gautam and terming the move “unauthorised”.The development comes at a time when Congress’s Rahul Gandhi is on a two-day visit to Raebareli and Amethi, barely hours away from Lucknow. The episode also coincided with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav publicly asserting that the Samajwadi Party’s alliance with Congress would continue for the 2027 UP Assembly elections.Seeking to downplay the political significance of the visit, Punia described it as a “courtesy call” in an official statement issued on Wednesday.“A meeting of the party’s SC department chaired by Rajendra Pal was held in Lucknow on Tuesday evening. Since the Congress office is located close to Mayawati’s residence, we decided to pay her a spontaneous courtesy visit while passing by after the meeting,” Punia said, adding that the delegation could not secure an appointment with the BSP chief.He also dismissed speculation that the Congress functionaries were carrying any message from Gandhi for Mayawati.Meanwhile, AICC in-charge for UP, Avinash Pande confirmed that the party had sought an explanation from the functionaries involved. “The party has taken note of the matter and notices have been issued to ascertain why the visit took place,” he said.Pande added that while the Congress held Mayawati in “high regard”, the functionaries had acted in their personal capacity and not on behalf of the party. UP Congress chief Ajay Rai also maintained that no formal approval had been granted for the visit. “Such meetings are usually cleared by the top functionaries in advance,” he said.Party insiders admitted the incident created avoidable confusion at a politically sensitive time in UP. “Akhilesh Yadav only recently reiterated that the INDIA bloc remains intact ahead of the 2027 assembly elections. Any unplanned political outreach is bound to trigger speculation and multiple interpretations,” a senior Congress functionary said.
