Rejig in Cong ranks; Shinde no longer Himachal incharge, 4 new AICC secys

NEW DELHI: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday removed former home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde as the party’s incharge of Himachal Pradesh, appointing former Rajya Sabha member Rajani Patil in his place.

Making another set of organisational changes, Gandhi also named former Uttar Pradesh legislator Nadeem Javed as the head of the party’s minority department. Javed replaces Khushid Ahmed Saiyed.

Four new All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretaries, Jitendra Baghel, Biswaranjan Mohanty, Virender Singh Rathore and Rajesh Lilothia were also appointed.

While Baghel and Mohanty will assist Rajeev Satav in Gujarat, Rathore and Lilothia will help Shaktisinh Gohil in Bihar.

As part of the additional changes, Congress general secretary incharge of Andhra Pradesh Digvijaya Singh was appointed as the chairman of the coordination committee in Madhya Pradesh where assembly elections are due later this year.

Congress’ chief whip in the Lok Sabha Jyotiraditya Scindia had already been named as the campaign committee chairman while senior leader Suresh Pachauri will head the chief of the election planning and strategy committee.

The changes are part of an organisational reshuffle in the Congress since Gandhi took over as the party’s president on December 16 last year but the changes have been gradual. The reconstitution of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision-making body of the party, and some more changes at the general secretary levels are still pending People think it is a new scheme, which is not correct. There are 800 universities across the country, and there is no protest going on there. The scheme of autonomous colleges is going on since 1970s and there are already 635 autonomous institutes in the country and 335 have applied for autonomous status... We aren’t thrusting autonomy scheme on anyone, institutes are applying on their own. Firstly it is the autonomy that has been given to Indian Institutes of Management under the IIM bill which was passed unanimously in both houses of the Parliament and now the rules are also being No, not at all. Paper leaks have taken place in the past too. There used to be more such leaks earlier and it has come down now. We have taken it as a challenge and which is

THE CHANGES ARE PART OF AN ORGANISATIONAL RESHUFFLE IN THE CONGRESS SINCE RAHUL GANDHI TOOK OVER AS THE PARTY’S PRESIDENT