A day ahead of the UPA’s cabinet reshuffle, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi got a new team as the party went for a reshuffle on Sunday.
The number of general secretaries have been raised from eight to 12 and those elevated include Ajay Maken and Ambika Soni. Besides shaking the Congress working committee, the highest decision-making body and office bearers, the party announced screening committees for selecting candidates in five states going to polls in November.
Ambika Soni, who resigned from the council of ministers last October, returned as in-charge of Congress president’s office as well as the general secretary in-charge of J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Senior leader Motilal Vora continues as treasurer and in-charge of AICC administration.
Mohan Prakash, elevated as general secretary, retains the charge of Maharashtra and gets Madhya Pradesh. The secretaries assigned to him include party MP Sanjay Nirupam.
Former Gujarat MP and general secretary Madhusudan Mistry has been given the charge of the all-important UP in place of Digvijay Singh. He is also in-charge of the party’s central election committee. Over the years, he has emerged as Rahul Gandhi’s right-hand man.
He was earlier assigned the job of identifying candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.
Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad continues to be a CWC member but has been dropped from the list of office bearers.
Urban development minister Ajay Maken will head the media department which has been rechristened as communication, besides holding charge of publicity and publication. The outgoing media department chairman Janardan Dwivedi retains charge of coordination, AICC meetings, CWC, as the general secretary.
Road transport and railways minister CP Joshi, who resigned on Sunday, is now in-charge of West Bengal, Assam, Bihar and Andaman Nicobar, with five secretaries to assist him.
Digvijay Singh is now the general secretary in-charge of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa while Gurudas Kamat is the new general secretary in-charge of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
Shakeel Ahmed as general secretary will look after Delhi that goes to polls in November, besides Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.
Cabinet vacancies
There are 13 vacancies in the council of ministers as that many positions are held as additional charge — six by the cabinet ministers, three by ministers of state with independent charge and four other ministers of state.
Vacant ministries are road transport and highways; railways; housing and urban poverty alleviation.
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