Premium

Congress carries out major party revamp, with Rahul Gandhi imprint

Party appoints general secretaries for 2 states, in-charges for 9; six leaders who held these positions, including in Haryana, removed

Friday’s reshuffle is part of a larger restructuring, announced after the Congress Working Committee meeting in Karnataka’s Belagavi on December 26. (Express file photo by Anil Sharma)

Days after the Congress suffered a third straight Assembly election defeat since the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the party Friday implemented a major organisational shakeup which bore the imprint of senior leader Rahul Gandhi.

It appointed general secretaries for two states and in-charges for nine, removing six leaders who held these positions.

The Congress brought in former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel into the AICC secretariat, also appointing him its Punjab general secretary. Rajya Sabha MP Syed Naseer Hussain was made the general secretary in charge of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.

Story continues below this ad

While Baghel replaced Devender Yadav, who held the charge of Punjab even after being appointed Delhi Congress chief last year, Hussain replaced Gujarat leader Bharatsinh Solanki as the general secretary in charge of J&K.
Most of the new appointees are either close to Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi or AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Baghel, for instance, enjoys good equations with Priyanka.

The exception appears to be Hussain, who is considered close to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge. A Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka, he was in charge of Kharge’s office.

The new in-charges of the states are: Rajya Sabha MP Rajani Patil (Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh), B K Hariprasad (Haryana), Harish Chaudhary (Madhya Pradesh), Girish Chodankar (Tamil Nadu and Puducherry), Ajay Kumar Lallu (Odisha), K Raju (Jharkhand), Meenakshi Natarajan (Telangana), Lok Sabha MP Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka (Manipur, Tripura, Sikkim and Nagaland) and Krishna Allavaru (Bihar).

Most of these leaders have held organisational responsibilities in the past. Hariprasad, for instance, has been a general secretary in charge of several states. He has now been made an in-charge — a demotion of sorts. Patil and Chaudhary, too, have been in-charges. Before the reshuffle, Chodankar was in-charge of Manipur, Tripura, Sikkim and Nagaland.

Story continues below this ad

Lallu, Raju and Ulaka are new entrants as in-charges. All of them are considered close to Rahul.

While Lallu was earlier chief of Uttar Pradesh Congress, Raju, a former bureaucrat who has worked closely with Rahul, is national coordinator of the SC, ST, OBC and minority departments of the Congress. Allavaru is currently in-charge of the Youth Congress. He has been given the charge for Bihar in a year the state heads to the polls. Natarajan had earlier headed the Congress’ Rajiv Gandhi Panchayati Raj Sangathan.

Among the six outgoing leaders is Dipak Babaria, who held the top post for Haryana when the party lost the Assembly polls in the state last year.

Besides Solanki (Jammu & Kashmir) and Yadav (Punjab), the other outgoing general secretaries and in-charges are: Mohan Prakash (Bihar), Rajeev Shukla (Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh) and Ajoy Kumar (Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry).

Story continues below this ad

Friday’s reshuffle is part of a larger restructuring, announced after the Congress Working Committee meeting in Karnataka’s Belagavi on December 26. The party had announced that it would reshuffle the organization from top to bottom. It had said that “2025 will be the year of organisational strengthening for the party on all levels”.

Since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress has lost elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Delhi.

Asad Rehman

Asad Rehman is with the national bureau of The Indian Express and covers politics and policy focusing on religious minorities in India. A journalist for over eight years, Rehman moved to this role after covering Uttar Pradesh for five years for The Indian Express. During his time in Uttar Pradesh, he covered politics, crime, health, and human rights among other issues. He did extensive ground reports and covered the protests against the new citizenship law during which many were killed in the state. During the Covid pandemic, he did extensive ground reporting on the migration of workers from the metropolitan cities to villages in Uttar Pradesh. He has also covered some landmark litigations, including the Babri Masjid-Ram temple case and the ongoing Gyanvapi-Kashi Vishwanath temple dispute. Prior to that, he worked on The Indian Express national desk for three years where he was a copy editor. Rehman studied at La Martiniere, Lucknow and then went on to do a bachelor's degree in History from Ramjas College, Delhi University. He also has a Masters degree from the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia. ... Read More

us india trade talks, us india trade negotiations, us india tariffs, us india trade relations, trump modi trade talks, india us commerce ministry, us tariffs on india, india exporters relief package, us india economic relations, india us trade barriers, us india trade deal, india us trade meeting, rajesh agarwal commerce ministry, india us trade dispute, india us bilateral trade

Trade talks ‘positive’, govt says will intensify efforts to close US deal early

Business8 hr ago

India and the US have resumed trade negotiations after the US imposed tariffs on India for buying Russian oil. The sixth round of talks will focus on recognising India's red lines and possibly increasing energy purchases from the US. Other topics include easing patent rules, data flows, and giving US firms procurement access.

View all shorts

Live Blog