Sonia to let winds of change sweep through Congress

NEW DELHI, DEC 18: Sonia Gandhi will finally overhaul the party's organisational structure. According to highly-placed sources within the ...

NEW DELHI, DEC 18: Sonia Gandhi will finally overhaul the party’s organisational structure. According to highly-placed sources within the Congress, she is expected to make the first changes within the next few days. Two new general secretaries are likely to be named. Motilal Vora and Ramesh Chennitala are tipped to take the place of Madhavrao Scindia and RK Dhawan. Vora was part of the fact-finding team that was sent to Bihar after the Lok Sabha polls and he was also a member of the Antony Committee. More recently, both Vora and Chennitala were sent as observers to Orissa to facilitate the election of a new chief minister.

While Dhawan is said to be unwell, Scindia will be giving up his general secretaryship in view of the the one-man, one-post norm. He is also the deputy leader of the party in the Lok Sabha. “It’s not a question of my losing one job,” said Scindia. “It’s a question of involving more people within the organisation.” In fact, it was Scindia himself who brought this matter up at theWorking Committee meeting held recently.

Another general secretary who holds three posts is Pranab Mukherjee: he is the Chairman of the Media Department and also the Congress’s Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha. The party’s media management came in for some flak in the Antony Committee report. Speculation is rife that Kamal Nath will be inducted in his place. However, it is not yet clear which one of his other two duties Mukherjee will relinquish.

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But the big question troubling Congressmen is whom Sonia will appoint Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to the Leader of the Opposition. The Leader of the Opposition is allowed an IAS officer as OSD. The two names that are doing the rounds are Pulak Chatterjee and Wajahat Habibullah. While Chatterjee is a joint secretary with the health ministry, Habibullah is currently with the Indian mission in Washington. Both have worked in the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and enjoy Sonia’s trust.

And, six months after Sharad Pawar left the party, Sonia is now expected to fill in thethree vacancies at the CWC level. She is reportedly keen to maintain the regional balance, which is why Nagaland chief minister SC Jamir is tipped to replace PA Sangma. As for the slots vacated by Pawar and Tariq Anwar, the Congress president wants to fill these with heavyweights from Maharashtra and Bihar. Her other compulsion is the impending Assembly elections. Which is why Bhajan Lal, the former Haryana CM, is likely to join the CWC as a special invitee.

Regarding the recent criminal activities carried out by the gang, ADG Krishnan said that one Aditya Kumar was shot dead by Ranjan Pathak and his associates on July 18 in the Bajpatti police station area.

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