A day after Cong rejig, Kamat seeks exit
NEWDELHI: A day after the charge of poll-bound Gujarat was taken away from him at his request, senior Congress leader Gurudas Kamat once again urged party chief Sonia Gandhi on Thursday to relieve him of the responsibilities of Rajasthan.
The Congress leadership is now in the process of identifying his replacement. The names of party veterans Sushilkumar Shinde, Kamal Nath and Bhupinder Singh Hooda are doing the rounds.
While assembly elections will be held in Gujarat in NovemberDecember this year, Rajasthan goes to polls in April-May 2018.
Congress sources also indicated that party general secretary Digvijaya Singh could be divested of the responsibilities of Karnataka and the charge may be given to Madhusudan Mistry.
Singh has come under fire for his “mishandling” of the post-poll developments in Goa, where the Congress failed to form the government despite emerging as the single largest party.
Even in Karnataka, which goes to polls in March 2018, there has been a rebellion brewing in the ruling Congress.
Many legislators have complained to the Congress high command about Singh’s style of functioning and demanded his removal from the post.
Mistry was the general secretary in-charge of Karnataka in 2013 when the Congress regained power from the BJP.
In his fresh letter to the Congress president on Thursday, Kamat said he was grateful to her for relieving him of the charge of Gujarat. Gandhi named former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot as his replacement in the BJP-ruled state.
“Am truly grateful but surprised that the AICC spokesman yesterday announced that I continue to be the general secretary in charge of Rajasthan… I had written to you my heart is not in the job any more. Please relieve me from Rajasthan and other positions also,” he wrote. Kamat is also a member of the all-powerful Congress Working Committee (CWC).
Kamathas been at logger heads with party general secretary in-charge of Maharashtra, Mohan Prakash, and Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam for some time now.
However, he refuted reports of any move to join the BJP. “I will continue to serve the people of Mumbai and Maharashtra. I will raise issues which impact them,” Kamat said in a statement.