New Delhi: The Congress High Command on Saturday announced a major organisational rejig ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Among several changes made was the handing over of the charge of Kerala from AICC general secretary Tariq Anwar to Deepa Dasmunshi. She will also have the charge of Lakshadweep and the additional charge of Telangana.
The party appointed Avinash Pande the general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, replacing Priyanka Gandhi Vadra while Sachin Pilot was made the general secretary in-charge of Chhattisgarh. Priyanka Gandhi will now be a general secretary "without any assigned portfolio", according to a statement issued by the party.
Pilot, along with GA Mir, Dipak Babaria, and Deepa Dasmunshi, was appointed as general secretaries, while Tariq Anwar was dropped from the list. Pande was earlier AICC in-charge of Jharkhand.
The appointments come two days after a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's highest decision-making body, which was chaired by party president Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by senior leaders, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
Pilot, a former deputy chief minister of Rajasthan, replaces Kumari Selja, who has now been given the role of general secretary in-charge of Uttarakhand, the statement said. Congress leader Mir is the general secretary in-charge of Jharkhand with the additional charge of West Bengal, it said.
Senior leaders Jairam Ramesh, K C Venugopal, Mukul Wasnik, and Randeep Singh Surjewala remain the general secretaries in-charge of communication, organisation, Gujarat, and Karnataka, respectively.
Jitendra Singh, who is the general secretary in-charge of Assam, was given the additional charge of Madhya Pradesh, while Babaria was elevated as a general secretary and given the charge of Delhi, along with the additional charge of Haryana, the statement said.
Ajay Maken continues to be the treasurer, while Milind Deora and Vijay Inder Singla have been made joint treasurers.
Party president Kharge also appointed in-charges for different states. Ramesh Chennithala is the in-charge of Maharashtra, Mohan Prakash of Bihar, Chellakumar of Meghalaya, Mizoram & Arunachal Pradesh, Ajoy Kumar of Odisha, with an additional charge of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, and Bharatsinh Solanki of Jammu and Kashmir.
Rajeev Shukla is the in-charge of Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa of Rajasthan, Devender Yadav of Punjab, Manikrao Thakre of Goa, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli, while Girish Chodankar is made in-charge of Tripura, Sikkim, Manipur and Nagaland.
Manickam Tagore is the in-charge of Andhra Pradesh and Andaman & Nicobar while Gurdeep Singh Sappal is the in-charge of administration.
"The party appreciates the contributions of outgoing general secretary Shri Tariq Anwar and in-charges Shri Bhakta Charan Das, Shri Harish Chaudhary, Smt. Rajani Patil and Shri Manish Chatrath," the statement added.
MP Syed Naseer Hussain, who is a member of the CWC, was made in-charge of the Congress president's office, and Pranav Jha will be the AICC secretary attached to the Congress president's office communication. The statement said the appointments will come into effect immediately.
(With PTI inputs)
