Pradeep Mathur is New UP CLP leader

Congress party on Wednesday elected Pradeep Mathur as leader of its legislature party.  The final decision was taken by party president Sonia Gandhi, who chose Mathur, an old Congress worker, over Anugrah Narayan Singh, who had joined the party only five years ago. The 28 MLAs of the party were divided on the choice of their new leader. So it was left on Sonia to take a final decision. Once the legislators got to know of their party president's choice, all of them decided to back Mathur. A fourth-time MLA from Mathura, Mathur is known as a trusted man of Pramod Tiwari, the former CLP leader, who is expecting a new assignment at the Centre.
Mathur, an old Congress hand, is a legislator from Mathura-Vrindavan seat and is a lawyer by profession. A father of three (a son and two daughters, all doctors by profession), Mathur is a "tested soldier" of the party and first became a legislator in 1985. Before his elevation as the CLP leader, he was the deputy leader. His modesty and connect with the grassroot level workers, party seniors said, turned the tide in his favour, upseting calculations of the likes of Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Anugrah Narayan Singh.