Pilot gets a key role in Congress, and Priyanka quits UP; After a year and a half, Kharge formed his team.

A year and a half after taking charge of the organization, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has made major organizational changes and formed his election team for  2024.

New Delhi: A year and a half after taking charge of the organization, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has made major organizational changes and formed his election team for  2024. The most important change in this is that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will no longer take charge of Uttar Pradesh and will continue as the party general secretary without any responsibility. Avinash Pandey has been made the new general secretary in charge of UP. Former Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot has been given the responsibility of Chhattisgarh for the first time, giving importance to him. Kharge’s new election team of  12 general secretaries includes four new faces, including Pilot and Deepdas Munshi. Mumbai: Maharashtra youth leader Milind Deora has been made the joint treasurer of the party, bringing him back to central politics.

Organizational changes in Congress: Senior Bihar leaders Tariq Anwar, Bhakta Charan Das, Rajni Patil, and Harish Chaudhary have been discharged from the organization. The Congress high command has stepped up the pace of political decisions over the last two weeks in view of the challenges for the general elections after the fresh debacle in three key states of the Hindi belt. In this context, the most important decision of the party’s long-overdue organizational change on Saturday is the most important decision.

Kharge’s new election team: Mallikarjun Kharge took over as the Congress President in October  2022. Since then, there has been no major reshuffle except for the formation of the working committee. Although there has not been a very big change in Kharge’s new election team, but it is definitely that there has been an attempt to give some newness by including faces like Pilot, Deepa Dasmunshi, Deora, Ghulam Ahmed Mir, Ramesh Chennithala,  Bharat Solanki in the organization.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s stepping down as Uttar Pradesh chief minister is the most important aspect of this change. Since the defeat of the Congress in the last assembly elections, Priyanka has stopped her activism in the state. There have been indications for some time that a new in-charge will be appointed in his place and senior Maharashtra leader Avinash Pandey will now take over this responsibility. Priyanka will continue as General Secretary without any responsibility.

Sachin Pilot takes charge of Chhattisgarh: With Sachin Pilot becoming the Congress General Secretary, it has become clear that at present, the high command is seeing more of his role in central politics than in Rajasthan. The Congress party’s senior-most general secretary Mukul Wasnik has been given the charge of Gujarat and Jitendra Singh has been given additional charge of Madhya Pradesh Congress along with Assam Congress. Randeep Surjewala will now only take charge of Karnataka. Kumari Selja will now be the Congress General Secretary in charge of Uttarakhand instead of Chhattisgarh.

Deepa Dasmunsi, who has become General Secretary for the first time, will hold additional charge of Congress Telangana along with Kerala and Lakshadweep. Ghulam Ahmad Mir has been made general secretary in-charge of Jharkhand Congress and given additional charge of Congress Bengal. Deepak Babaria will continue to look after Delhi and Haryana.

KC Venugopal will continue to be the Congress organization general secretary while Jairam Ramesh will be the communication general secretary. Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa will continue to be in charge of Rajasthan Congress, Congress Leader Manickam Tagore will be in charge of Andhra Pradesh and Andaman and Nicobar. Tariq Anwar has been relieved from the post of general secretary while Rajni Patil, Bhakta Charan Das, Harish Chaudhary and Manish Chatrath have been relieved from the post of in-charge.

Appointment of 12 in-charges along with 12  general secretaries:  Along with 12 general secretaries, 12  in-charges have also been appointed in the organization. The return of Ramesh Chennithala and Mohan Prakash is significant. Chennithala has been made in-charge of a big state like Maharashtra and Mohan Prakash has been made in-charge of Bihar. Dr. Ajay Kumar will take additional charge of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry along with Odisha. Former Gujarat Congress president Bharat Solanki has now been made in charge of Jammu and Kashmir. Rajeev Shukla will continue to look after Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh.

Manikrao Thakare, who was Congress in-charge in Telangana, has now been made in charge of Goa, Daman and Diu, Dadra Nagar Haveli, while Girish Chodankar has been made in charge of Tripura, Sikkim,  Manipur and Nagaland. Gurdeep Sappal has been retained as in-charge of the administration of the Congress headquarters.

Milind Deora and senior Punjab leader Vijay Inder Singla have been appointed as joint treasurers to strengthen Ajay Maken, who recently became Congress treasurer. Syed Nasir Hussain will be in charge of the Congress president’s office. Pranab Jha has been appointed as the Congress Secretary. He has been attached to the office of the Congress President.