Congress reshuffles organisational team, appoints Sachin Pilot Punjab in-charge

The Congress on Saturday carried out a major organisational reshuffle and appointed Sachin Pilot as general secretary in-charge of poll-bound Punjab, replacing Bhupesh Baghel, who has been shifted to Assam in the same position.

The party has also appointed Randeep Singh Surjewala as general secretary in-charge of Gujarat, according to a party statement. He will, however, continue to be in-charge of Karnataka, which recently saw a smooth transition of power from Siddaramaiahn to D K Sivakumar.

Punjab goes to polls early next year while assembly elections in Gujarat will be held later next year.

Party chief Mallikarjun Kharge changed party in-charges in Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, besides changing general secretaries in election-bound states of Punjab and Gujarat.

Sources said some more changes are likely in the Punjab unit soon, to strengthen the organisation ahead of assembly polls. At present, the party is a divided lot in the faction-ridden Punjab unit.

AICC general secretary, organisation, K C Venugopal, said in a statement that the Congress president has reassigned/appointed party functionaries as AICC general secretary/incharge for different states with immediate effect.

Sukhdeo Bhagat has been appointed as Chhattisgarh in-charge, Dr Sirivella Prasad as Maharashtra in-charge and P V Mohan as Andhra Pradesh in-charge.

"The party appreciates the contributions of the following outgoing General Secretary/In-charges -- Jitendra Singh, Ramesh Chennithala and Manickam Tagore," Venugopal said.

Mukul Wasnik will continue as general secretary, AICC, according to the statement.

The party has removed Jitendra Singh as general secretary in-charge of Assam and Mukul Wasnik as general secretary in-charge of Gujarat, though they are considered close to the Gandhis.

Tagore, who was in-charge of Telangana, was made Tamil Nadu Congress chief recently after the party came to power with Vijay's TVK.