The Congress president Sonia Gandhi has today reconstituted the All India Congress Committee showing the door to the senior most Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad who had been with the Congress during its thick and thin for the last five decades including Sonia n Rahul Gandhi but had committed a blunder by shooting up a strong letter to party president recently alongwith 23 other senior Congress leaders to decentralize the party organisation, appointing a full time president who’s available 24×7 n conduct elections in states n CWC to revitalise and strengthen it creating lot of controversy allegedly inviting the annoyance of Sonia n Rahul Gandhi in the media as well as in the party’s highest decision making body CWC.
It’s not only Ghulam Nabi’s demotion but speculations about Sachin Pilot’s possible elevation as general secretary has also been vanquished after his name was missing from the list of newly appointed general secretaries of AICC.
Sources reveal that Sonia Gandhi has by removing the old leaders n appointing the Young Turks has opened the way for Rahul Gandhi’s re appointment as the party’s next president.
The old leaders removed from the party posts are Ghulam Nabi Azad, Motilal Vohra Malikarjun Kharge, Ambika Soni and Faleiro etc n in their place new entrants were included as general secretaries. However senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Digvijay Singh, Ambika Soni etc have been included in the CWC.
In a press release issued after the reconstitution of AICC by the general secretary K C Venugopal considered to be quite close to both Sonia n Rahul Gandhi, it is said that after appointing the nine general secretaries the AICC appreciates the contributions of outgoing general secretaries viz. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Moti Lal Vohra, Ambika Soni, Mallikarjun Kharge n Luizinho Faleiro including four other outgoing incharges of various states viz Anugrah Narayan Singh of Uttarakhand, Smt. Asha Kumari, Shri Gaurav Gogoi and Ram Chandra Khuntia.
The general secretaries of newly constituted AICC are are viz Mukul Wasnik, Harish Rawat, Ooman Chandy, Tariq Anwar, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Jitendra Singh, Ajay Maken and K. C. Venugopal.
General Secretary Harish Rawat who was earlier the Incharge of Assam has now been given the charge of Punjab, a Congress ruled state with Captain Amrinder Singh as its CM.
While K. C. Venugopal will look after the organisation (AICC) , newly appointed general secretary Mukul Wasnik will look after Madhya Pradesh whereas Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been given the charge of entire Uttar Pradesh, the largest state with 80 Lok Sabha seats.
Earlier she was looking after Eastern Uttar Pradesh n Jyotiraditya Scindia after Western UP. Jyotiraditya has joined BJP n is currently the Rajya Sabha MP from the saffron party.
The former senior most general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad will however remain as the CWC member and so will all the general secretaries. Generall secretary Tariq Anwar will look after Kerala n Laksadweep n Jitendra Singh will be the mew incharge of Assam in place of Harish Rawat.
General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala has been given Karnataka while Maken has retained Rajasthan. However, Ommen Chandy general secretary has got Andhra Pradesh.
Apart from 9 general secretaries the party president Sonia Gandhi has appointed 17 Incharges of various states with Rajiv Shukla getting the charge of Himachal Pradesh and Devendra Yadav, a Delhi Congress leader given the charge of Uttarakhand in place of Anugrah Narayan Singh.
In this entire reconstitution while former general secretary Ghulam Nabhi Azad has been sidelined with Shashi Tharoor, Abhishekh Singhvi n Kapil Sibal not included in the list of new appointees who had been the key letter writers to Sonia Gandhi with 20 other signatories, the senior most general secretary Mukul Wasnik has been futher elevated by his inclusion in the special high level committee alongwith A.K. Antony, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Ahmed Patel n Ambika Patel etc to advise party president Sonia Gandhi on important organisational matters n policy decisions.
Surjewala will in addition to party general secretary remain the chief spokesperson of AICC as before.
