In a major reshuffle, Congress drops Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kharge as party general secretaries
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday reconstituted the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and the Central Election Authority of the party. The party appointed general secretaries and state in-charges of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who had rebelled against party Sonia Gandhi at the recent CWC meet, has been sacked from the general secretary position in the major reshuffle. Along with Azad, Ambika Soni, Motilal Vohra, Luzenio Falerio and Mallikarjun Kharge were also dropped from the list of general secretaries.
Azad was one of the signatories on the 'dissident' letter sent to Sonia Gandhi by over 20 party leaders that had caused a furore within the Grand Old Party last month.
Former Union Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has been made AICC in charge of administration, replacing Motilal Vora.
The biggest gainer from the reshuffle is Randeep Surjewala, who has been been appointed as AICC General Secretary of Karnataka and also a member of the six-member committee that will aid the Congress president in running the affairs of the party. While Rajeev Shukla has been appointed as the in-charge of Himachal.
However, Jitin Prasad has received a promotion despite being a signatory on the controversial letter to Sonia Gandhi. Prasad has been appointed as the in-charge for poll-bound West Bengal, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will continue to be in charge of Uttar Pradesh, while Manickam Tagore will be the new secretary in-charge for Telangana.
Harish Rawat to be general secretary in-charge Punjab, Tariq Anwar has been made both general secretary in-charge of poll-bound Kerala and Lakshadweep and also a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), Jitendra Singh in-charge Assam, and Oommen Chandy will be in-charge for Andhra Pradesh.
New members of the Congress Working Committee will be - Digvijay Singh, Rajiv Shukla, Manickam Tagore, Pramod Tiwari, Jairam Ramesh, HK Patil, Salman Khurshid, Pawan Bansal, Dinesh Gundurao, Manish Chatrath and Kuljit Nagra.
