Big change in Congress: Sonia Gandhi reorganises Congress Working Committee, new incharges in many states
Sep 11, 2020
By Siddharth Sharma
New Delhi [India], September 12 : Congress president Sonia Gandhi has announced a restructuring of the Congress Working Committee.
A committee of six leaders has also been formed to support the Congress president. Along with this, the in-charges of many states have been changed and the central election authority which conducts the organisation elections in Congress has also been reorganised.
This reshuffle took place within 20 days of the recent letter written by 23 Congress leaders to party president Sonia Gandhi and the subsequent CWC meeting. The leaders who wrote the letter demanded that the CWC be elected but Sonia Gandhi reorganised the CWC.
A total of 22 leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, AK Antony, Ambika Soni, have been made members of the CWC.
Randeep Surjewala has got the biggest promotion in the reshuffle. Randeep, Tariq Anwar and Jitendra Singh have been made general secretaries and have got a place in the CWC. Randeep Surjewala's name is also in the committee formed to assist Sonia Gandhi.
Dissent letter signatory leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mukul Wasnik have also got equal space. Ghulam Nabi Azad has been made a member of the CWC but has been removed from the post of general secretary.
Ambika Soni and Mallikarjun Kharge have also been relieved of the responsibility of the General Secretary. But both have been made members of the CWC. Anand Sharma and Mukul Wasnik have also been retained as a member of CWC. Mukul Wasnik has been retained in the post of general secretary and he has also been given a place in the committee to assist Sonia Gandhi.
Bhupendra Singh Hooda, Kapil Sibal, Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tiwari among the leaders who wrote the letter are not mentioned in any list. Sachin Pilot has also been ignored.
However, leaders like Manish Tiwari and Sachin Pilot may get other major responsibilities in the coming days.
Among those returning is Digvijay Singh who has been made a permanent invitee member of CWC. The most important is the name of Jitin Prasada who has been made in-charge of Bengal and due to this, special invitee member of CWC has been promoted to permanent member. Jitin Prasada was also among the 23 leaders who wrote the letter. Leaders like Salman Khurshid, Jairam Ramesh, Rajiv Shukla, Pawan Bansal have also been made permanent invitees.
Among the general secretaries, Randeep Surjewala has been made in-charge of Karnataka, Tariq Anwar of Kerala, Jitendra Singh of Assam and Harish Rawat of Punjab. Ajay Maken has already got the charge of Rajasthan and Mukul Wasnik of Madhya Pradesh. Priyanka Gandhi will remain in-charge of Uttar Pradesh.
Veteran leader Motilal Vora has been left out. He did not find a place in the CWC and has also been relieved of the responsibility of the General Secretary Administration. Pawan Kumar Bansal has got the administration charge.
Jitin Prasada has been made in-charge of West Bengal, Rajiv Shukla of Himachal Pradesh, Manikam Tagore of Telangana, HK Patil of Maharashtra, Vivek Basal of Haryana, Devendra Yadav of Uttarakhand and Manish Chatrath of Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. Rajni Patil was made the new in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir.
A special committee has been formed to help Congress president Sonia Gandhi. AK Antony, Ahmed Patel, Ambika Soni, Venugopal, Mukul Wasnik, and Randeep Surjewala are its members.
Madhusudan Mistry has been made the president of the Congress's Central Election Authority. With this, the process of electing the next president in the Congress can begin. Four other leaders, including Arvinder Singh Lovely, have been made its members. Significantly, Lovely was also among the leaders who wrote the letter.
Overall, Rahul Gandhi's trusted leaders have got a lot of space in Sonia Gandhi's new team along with her old confidants. Those who have patience have got a reward. The faction that wrote the letter has not been ignored, but an attempt has been made to give the message of 'discipline' by giving some names.
However, the big question still remains that who will be the next president of the Congress in place of Sonia Gandhi: Rahul Gandhi or will he be a leader outside the Gandhi family?
