Reshuffle over,stage set for AICC reconstitution

With the reshuffle in the Ministers over,the stage is set for a reconstitution of the AICC.

With the reshuffle in the Union Council of Ministers over,the stage is set for a reconstitution of the All India Congress Committee.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi has almost finalised the contours of the new AICC secretariat,which could be announced in a couple of days,sources said.

The reshuffle in AICC,which comes after the party’s debacle in Bihar assembly election and ahead of polls in five states,is likely to introduce some new faces.

Gandhi has already been authorised to nominate the entire Congress Working Committee at the meeting of AICC held two months back.

The apex policy making body of the party has 23 members besides the Prime Minister and the Congress President who are ex-officio members.

As per the practice,half of this 23 CWC members are elected while the other half is nominated. This time it will be entirely an exercise of nomination for CWC as elections could not be held for the party body.

Four party general secretaries had been inducted into the Union Council of Ministers after the UPA-II government assumed office,as a result of which they were left with little time to concentrate on party work.

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They were AICC general secretaries Ghulam Nabi Azad,Mukul Wasnik,Prithviraj Chavan and V Narayanasami.

Chavan later resigned from the ministry after being elected as Maharashtra Chief Minister. All of them still hold dual charges as ministers and party office-bearers.

In addition to the general secretaries,some cabinet ministers also hold dual charges as party in-charge of states.

Union Minister M Veerappa Moily is the party in-charge of Andhra Pradesh while Defence Minister A K Antony looks after Maharashtra.

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The party has held that “in principle” it favours the one-person-one-post formula but there could be some exceptions.

Sources said that the upcoming reshuffle in AICC is likely to take into all these issues including the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal,Kerala,Tamil Nadu,Puducherry and Assam. They added that the process for the AICC reshuffle is in the final stage.