In an effort to refurbish the party’s image and make it battle ready for the Assembly and lok Sabha elections, the Congress on Sunday effected major changes in the organization reflecting combination of experience and youth.
The reshuffle has the stamp of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi as the average age of senior party functionaries of the CWC has come down to 52 years while a lot of dead wood has been removed.
Four new General Secretaries have been included in the reshuffle. Among them are Ajay Maken and CP Joshi, who resigned from the Cabinet, and senior leader Ambika Soni. Maharashtra leader Gurudas Kamat, who had resigned in protest after the last Cabinet reshuffle for being given the Water and Sanitation portfolio, has been promoted and brought back as General Secretary having charge of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Dadra, Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
Four general secretaries-Ghulam Nabi Azad, Birender Singh, Oscar Fernandes and Vilas Muttemwar have been divested of their responsibilities in the party. It is likely that Singh and Oscar, who have been dropped from the Congress Working Committee also, may be sworn in as Ministers in the Cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday.
Azad, from whom the responsibility of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh has been taken away, has remained a member of the Sonia Gandhi-led CWC.
The Cabinet reshuffle will see new faces in Railways and Surface Transport Ministries which have fallen vacant after C P Joshi’s resignation. Also Urban Poverty Alleviation portfolio earlier held by Maken, and Chemical and Fertiliser held by DMK leader Alagiri, as well as many Ministers of State portfolios vacated by the resignation of DMK and Trinamool Congress leaders will be filled during the last reshuffle of the UPA II Government.
Manikrao Gavit from Maharashtra is among those likely to be accommodated, sources said.
Meanwhile, Rahul has done away with the concept of State Incharges and elevated three of them Shakeel Ahmed, Mohan Prakash and luizinho Faleiro as General Secretaries raising their number to 12.
They have also been included as CWC members while five other State Incharges-Jagdish Tytler, Mohsina Kidwai, DR Shandil, Gulchain Singh Charak and Jagmeet Singh Brar have been divested of their responsibilities.
Tytler has been removed as the party faced embarrassment after a recent court judgement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, but Mohsina has been removed on her own written request to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, sources said. Shandil is already a Minister in the Himachal Pradesh Government, so his exclusion was expected.
To counter BJP appointing Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's nominee Amit Shah in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has also appointed its leader from Gujarat Madhusudan Mistry, who had played a crucial role in the party's recent victory in Karnataka, as the General Secretary Incharge of UP and Central Election Committee. Digvijay Singh, under whom the party had suffered a humiliating defeat in the UP Assembly polls, has been given charge of trouble torn Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa. From Andhra Pradesh only KS Rao has been included as the Permanent Invitee of CWC.
Rahul, who has himself kept the charge of Frontal Organisations-Youth Congress, NSUI, Sewa Dal, Mahila Congress and INTUC, will be assisted by Secretaries Prabha Kishor Taviad and Suraj Hegde. Ahmed Patel, will remain the Political Secretary of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, but Ambika has been given charge of Congress President's Office along with Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand.
Young and dynamic Maken has been given charge of Communication, Publicity and Publication indicating the latest realization in the party that it was not being able to properly utilize the social media and other communication means to promote the party's policies.
Maken, who will be assisted by Priya Dutt as Secretary, has replaced Janardan Dwivedi who will now look after AICC Meetings, AICC Departments, CWC Organisation, Organizational Elections, Sessions and Coordination.
Joshi has been given the responsibility of Assam, Bihar, West Bengal and Andman and Nicobar Islands in place of Shakeel who would now look after Delhi where elections are due in November.
He will also look after Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh. Congress General Secretary BK Hariprasad has retained the charge of Chhattisgarh, but divested of Madhya Pradesh and Haryana and given charge of Naxal-affected Odisha and Jharkhand.
After defeat in Gujarat Assembly polls, the party has taken away its charge from Mohan Prakash who has also lost Jammu and Kashmir. Now he will look after Madhya Pradesh along with Maharashtra.
This time, work allocation has been done on regional basis. So, Mukul Wasnik has been given charge of southern states Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and lakshadweep. Faleiro has been given responsibility of Northern states Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. Veteran Congress leader Motilal Vora will remain treasurer and look after Administration, Dwivedi said.
Since Secretaries in the past had complained to Rahul that they do not have enough work this time of the 42 Secretaries appointed 40 have been attached to 12 General Secretaries and given charge of one State each while two V Hanumantha Rao and Avtar Singh Bhadana are unattached.
Apart from Sonia, Rahul and the Prime Minister, the 21 member CWC has Defence Minister AK Antony, Ahmad Patel, Vora, Azad, Hema Prova Saikia, Sushila Tiriya and 12 General Secretaries. Home Minister P Chidambaram is among 15 Permanent Invitees of CWC alongwith Ajit Jogi, Capt Amrinder Singh, Beni Prasad Verma, Karan Singh, Ml Fotedar, Mohsina, MV Rajashekharan, Murli Deora, Oscar Fernandes and Vilas Muttemwar. Five Special Invitees of CWC are Anil Shastri, G Sanjeeva Reddy, MS Kaypee, Raj Babbar and Rashid Masood, but Nirmal Khatri has been dropped after being appointed UPPCC President.
Sonia has also appointed Screening Committees for five poll bound States. In Chhattisgarh Hariprasad will be General Secretary, CP Joshi chairman and Manik Tagore member. Shakeel will be General Secretary for Delhi, Union Minister V Narayansamy Chairman and Bhubaneswar Kalita its Member. In Rajasthan, Kamat will be General Secretary, Maken Chairman and RC Khuntia Member. In Madhya Pradesh Mohan Prakash will be General Secretary, Madhusudan Mistry Chairman and Union Minister Jitendra Singh is Member. In Mizoram Faleiro General Secretary, Mohan Prakash Chairman and Ashok Tanwar is Member.