The announcement was made by party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi, who said that the appointments have been made with immediate effect by party chief Sonia Gandhi. Mahant was made acting PCC chief on June 3, a week after senior party leaders in the state including PCC chief Nand Kumar Patel were massacred in a Maoist attack.
Mahant was not on the best of terms with former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi and the party had to take recourse to dinner diplomacy in Delhi to break the ice between them.
It was the bitter rivalry between the two leaders that had prompted Congress to name octogenarian Motilal Vora as the campaign committee chief for the state to prevent the matter from slipping out of control.
The changes in a way have set in motion the process for an organisational revamp to make the party fighting fit ahead of Lok Sabha election.
The Congress had yesterday replaced its Goa PCC chief Subhash A Shirodkar and appointed former MP John Fernandes as the state unit president.
