Cong considers state units’ revival, may boost satraps

NEW DELHI: The Congress’s surprisingly good showing in Haryana has prompted party president Sonia Gandhi to think of a reshuffle of the party organisation with a focus on communication and strengthening regional satraps, a party functionary familiar with the development said on condition of anonymity.

This will be the first reshuffle after Sonia Gandhi assumed the reins of the 133-year-old organisation on August 10, albeit in an interim role.

She took over after her son and the then Congress president Rahul Gandhi refused to take back his resignation dated May 25, soon after the party’s drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections in which it won just 52 seats.

While the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision making body of the party, too is expected to be revamped, several state units will see a change of guard.

These includes units in Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, the functionary cited above said.

A number of Congress leaders have previously submitted their resignations to share accountability with Rahul Gandhi for the party’s debacle in the Lok Sabha polls. They included general secand retaries Jyotiraditya Scindia (western Uttar Pradesh), Harish Rawat (Assam), and Dipak Babaria (Madhya Pradesh), legal cell head Vivek Tankha, farmer cell chief Nana Patole, chairman of the scheduled castes department Nitin Raut, and state unit presidents N Raghuveera Reddy (Andhra Pradesh), Niranjan Patnaik (Odisha) and Girish Chodankar (Goa).

Mumbai Congress chief Milind Deora and UP unit head Raj Babbar too resigned from their positions. Deora was replaced by Eknath Gaikwad as the Mumbai Congress acting chief, Ajay Kumar Lallu succeeded Babbar in UP.

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath too, has already requested Sonia Gandhi to relieve him of the responsibilities as the state unit chief, as has Delhi in-charge PC Chacko.

To be sure, this isn’t the first time the Congress has considered reviving state units, strengthening regional satraps generally getting its act together.

The big change could be at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) level.

The functionary quoted above said the AICC in-charge of communications Randeep Singh Surjewala is likely to be elevated as a general secretary and may be given charge of a state.

Soon after he lost from Kaithal in the Haryana elections, Surjewala changed his Twitter bio to remove a description of him being the in-charge of party’s communications department and instead mentioned his role as a permanent invitee to the CWC.

In his place, the names of senior leaders Manish Tewari, Anand Sharma and Ajay Maken are doing the rounds.

The reshuffle could also see several general secretaries being replaced, the functionary said. And several states will have new people in charge, he added.

For instance, the general secretary in-charge of Andhra Pradesh, Oommen Chandy, actually spends much of his time in his home state Kerala and general secretary in-charge of Haryana Ghulam Nabi Azad is not keen on looking after the affairs of the state, according to their close aides.

Both leaders could not be reached for their comments.

THE RESHUFFLE COULD ALSO SEE SEVERAL GEN SECYS BEING REPLACED AND SEVERAL STATES WILL HAVE NEW PEOPLE IN CHARGE, A PARTY FUNCTIONARY SAID