Lucknow, Dec 27 (IANS): Expelled Congress leaders will be holding parallel function in Lucknow on Saturday to mark the foundation day of the party.

This function is being held at a time when Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will also be in Lucknow to participate in the party's foundation day function.

An invitation to the function has been sent out by expelled Congress leader Vinod Chaudhary.

The expelled leaders have invited senior party leaders from each district.

"We have invited all those who believe in the Congress and its ideology. There are thousands of senior party leaders who have been sidelined and we want to bring them back into the party mainstream," said another expelled leader Haji Siraj Mehndi.

The Congress is celebrating its 135th foundation day on Saturday. The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885, 28 years after the first war of Indian Independence in 1857, in order to form a platform for civil and political dialogue among Indians.

The Congress in UP had expelled ten senior party leaders in November after they held a meeting to voice their resentment over the present state leadership and its style of functioning.