Trying to set its House in order in ruling states ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Congress today appointed its treasurer Moti Lal Vora as president of the Chhattisgarh unit and brought back former chief minister J.B. Patnaik to head the Orissa unit.‘‘Congress president Sonia Gandhi has appointed Vora as president of Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee with immediate effect,’’ AICC general secretary Oscar Fernandes said in a statement. He added that Sonia had also appointed Patnaik as the Orissa PCC chief in place of Sarat Patnaik and Narain Singh, a jat, as the new Rajasthan PCC chief following Dr Girija Vyas’s resignation after the Assembly polls.Vora, who replaces Ramanuj Yadav, a supporter of former chief minister Ajit Jogi, would continue to be the AICC treasurer, party spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi told mediapersons. Yadav too had resigned from the post after his Assembly election debacle.And, to tone up the party in Rajasthan, where it lost the recent Assembly polls, Sonia appointed B.D. Kalla as the new Congress Legislature Party leader, replacing Ashok Gehlot, who took moral responsibility for the poll debacle and resigned.
