© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
With Lok Sabha elections round the corner, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday carried out the long-delayed reshuffle of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretariat, relieving general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra of the charge of the key state of Uttar Pradesh and appointing Sachin Pilot as general secretary in charge of Chhattisgarh.
These appointments came a day after the party appointed a manifesto committee led by former Union Minister P Chidambaram to shape the party’s campaign narrative and the issues it will focus on during the Lok Sabha poll campaign. At the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Thursday, several party leaders called on the party to show a sense of urgency and start preparing for the general elections.
Priyanka will continue as general secretary “without any assigned portfolio”. There is talk that she could be given a big role in the organisation. Pilot’s elevation as AICC general secretary and Ashok Gehlot’s inclusion as a member of the national alliance committee set up earlier this week means that the Congress could be looking at a new face for the post of Leader of the Opposition in Rajasthan.
Avinash Pande who was in charge of Jharkhand will replace Priyanka as the general secretary in charge of UP. Priyanka was not keen to continue as in charge of UP, where she had led an aggressive campaign centred around women empowerment in the Assembly elections last year but with no success. The party’s performance was disastrous as it managed to win only two Assembly seats.
There are several other changes along expected lines. While Mukul Wasnik, who has been in charge of many states in the past, was placed in charge of Gujarat, Kumari Selja was moved from Chhattisgarh to Uttarakhand, Devender Yadav shifted from Uttarakhand to Punjab, Manickam Tagore from Goa to Andhra Pradesh, and Mohan Prakash brought back, this time as Bihar in-charge.
Apart from Pilot, the new entrants as general secretaries are former Jammu and Kashmir Congress president Ghulam Ahmed Mir who is in charge of Jharkhand with additional charge of West Bengal and Deepa Dasmunsi, who has been given the charge of Kerala, Lakshadweep, and additional charge of Telangana. Dasmunsi’s elevation meant she may not contest the Lok Sabha election from Raiganj Lok Sabha seat this time.
While general secretary Randeep Surjewala will continue to remain in charge of Karnataka, Deepak Babaria will remain in charge of Delhi with additional charge of Haryana. Jairam Ramesh will continue as general secretary of communications and K C Venugopal has retained his position as AICC general secretary (organisation). Jitendra Singh, who was the general secretary in charge of Assam has been given the additional charge of Madhya Pradesh.
In a surprising decision, veteran Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala was made in charge of Maharashtra but not as general secretary. Most of the 12 general secretaries, barring Wasnik, are much junior to him in the organisation. Lok Sabha MP Chellakumar, who was in charge of Odisha, has been shifted to Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. Ajoy Kumar who was in charge of Sikkim, Nagaland, and Tripura will replace him as the leader in charge of Odisha with additional charge of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Former Gujarat PCC president Bharatsinh Solanki has been given the charge of Jammu and Kashmir in place of Rajni Patil. Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa will continue as the Rajasthan in-charge.
Surprisingly, Maharashtra leader Manikrao Thakre who was in charge of Telangana where the party scored an Assembly election victory just days ago, has been shifted to Goa, Daman & Diu, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli. Former Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar who was once in charge of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) has been given charge of Tripura, Sikkim, Manipur, and Nagaland.
The reshuffle saw the exit of Tariq Anwar as general secretary and Bhakta Charan Das, Harish Chaudhary, Rajni Patil, and Manish Chatrath as in-charges.
