LUCKNOW, June 28 -- The appointment of Dalit leader Rajendra Pal Gautam as All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh is not just a routine organisational change but reflects the Congress's aggressive pivot toward Dalit and marginalized communities amid changing political equations in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the 2027 state assembly polls, which are just months away.

The former AAP minister who joined the Congress in 2022 replaced Avinash Pandey, a Brahmin.

Dalits were among the Congress's core voters until the late 1980s when the Bahujan Samaj Party gradually took over Dalit politics in the state.

The party's top leadership believes that with the BJP wooing upper-caste voters, the Congress still has...