Major reshuffle in Congress; Ghulam Nabi Azad removed as general secretary

The Congress on Friday effected major organisational changes, including a reshuffle in the AICC Secretariat, reconstitution of the Congress Working Committee, setting up of the new Central Election Authority, and most importantly, constitution of a special six-member committee to assist party chief Sonia Gandhi in discharging her duties as had been agreed in the recent meeting of the CWC.

The six-member committee comprises Sonia confidants A.K. Antony, Ahmed Patel and Ambika Soni, as also K.C. Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala, who are known to be close to former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi. The committee also includes Mukul Wasnik as the lone representative of the group of 23 senior Congress leaders who had written the 'letter of dissent' to the party president, seeking sweeping organisational reforms.

A CWC meeting was held on August 24 in the backdrop of the letter, where the idea of setting up the committee had been proposed by Rahul in response to the concerns expressed by the letter-writers about a leadership vacuum at the centre. It was also decided in the meeting that an AICC Session would be held within six months to elect the new party president. It was stated by the party on Friday that the committee shall continue to function till the next AICC Session.

The reshuffle in the AICC Secretariat sees the exit of veterans Ghulam Nabi Azad, Motilal Vora, Ambika Soni, Malikarjun Kharge and Luizinho Faleiro as general secretaries. The party has also relieved Anugrah Narayan Singh, Asha Kumari, Gaurav Gogoi and Ram Chandra Khuntia as in-charges of states.

It is noteworthy that Azad, who was in charge of party affairs in Haryana, has been seen as leading the letter-writing endeavour. Soni, who was in charge of Jammu and Kashmir, had been desirous of being relieved of her responsibility. Faleiro had faced flak for his handling of the unrest in the party in Tripura. Gogoi's exclusion could be a way of balancing his promotion in the party's parliamentary team. He was recently appointed the party's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha.

The reconstituted list of general secretaries comprises Wasnik as in charge of Madhya Pradesh, Harish Rawat as in charge of Punjab, Oomen Chandy as in charge of Andhra Pradesh, Jitendra Singh as in charge of Assam, with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and K.C. Venugopal retaining their responsibilities of Uttar Pradesh and Organisation, respectively. Surjewala makes an entry into the list, and has been given the charge of Karnataka. Tariq Anwar has been given the charge of Kerala and Lakshadweep. Ajay Maken was recently appointed as general secretary in charge of Rajasthan.

Amongst the leaders who signed on the letter of dissent, Jitin Prasada has been accommodated in the list of in-charges. He is in charge of West Bengal and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Former Union minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has been given the charge of Administration. Also, amongst the new names in the list are Manickam Tagore, who has been given the charge of Telangana, Dinesh Gundu Rao, who gets Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Goa, Rajeev Shukla, who has been given the charge of Himachal Pradesh, H.K. Patil, who gets Maharashtra, Devender Yadav as in charge of Uttarakhand, Vivek Bansal, who has been given the charge of Haryana, Manish Chatrath, who is now in charge of Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, Bhakta Charan Das, who gets Mizoram and Manipur, and Kuljit Singh Nagra, who has been made in charge of Sikkim, Nagaland and Tripura.

Azad, even as he has been relieved as general secretary, retains his place in the CWC. Another of the prominent leaders who wrote the letter, Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma, also continues to be in the committee. The reconstituted CWC includes besides Sonia and Rahul, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Antony, Patel, Soni, Azad, Sharma, Harish Rawat, Venugopal, Kharge, Wasnik, Chandy, Maken, Vadra, P. Chidambaram, Jitendra Singh, Anwar, Surjewala, Gaikhangam, Raghuveer Singh Meena and Tarun Gogoi.

The list of 26 permanent invitees to the committee sees the return of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh and former Union minister Salman Khurshid. The list includes Meira Kumar, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Jairam Ramesh, Khurshid, Avinash Pandey, K.H. Muniyappa, Pramod Tiwari, Tariq Hameed Karra, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Rajani Patil, P.L. Punia, R.P.N. Singh, Shaktisinh Gohil, Rajeev Satav, Rajeev Shukla, Jitin Prasada, Dinesh Gundu Rao, Manickam Tagore, Chellakumar, H.K. Patil, Devendra Yadav, Vivek Bansal, Manish Chatrath, Bhakta Charan Das and Kuljit Singh Nagra.

The special invitees include Deepender Hooda, Kuldeep Bishnoi, Chinta Mohan, Sachin Rao, Sushmita Dev, Lalji Desai, G Sanjeeva Reddy, Neeraj Kundan and B.V. Srinivas.

The Central Election Authority of the party has been reconstituted, which indicates movement in the direction of electing the new party president. It will be chaired by Madhusudan Mistry and comprises as members Rajesh Mishra, Krishna Byre Gowda, S. Jothimani and Arvinder Singh Lovely.

Contrary to the intense speculation that former Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot would be accommodated in the party's central team in Delhi, his name does not figure in the reshuffle. Rahul confidant Surjewala, on the other hand, has got a huge leg up in the revamp, with his name figuring in the list of general secretaries, the CWC as also the six-member special committee set up to assist Sonia.

The reshuffle does not indicate any major repercussions for the letter writers, except for Azad losing his place as general secretary. They have all maintained their places in the CWC. Jitin Prasada has found a place in the list of state in charges. And Wasnik is in the committee set up to assist Sonia.