Kharge appointed in- charge of Maha
New Delhi: Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Friday appointed Mallikarjun Kharge as the party’s general secretary in- charge of Maharashtra, officials said. Mr Kharge is the leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha and replaces Mohan Prakash, who ceases to be a party general secretary.
In the wake of 2019 Assembly elections and the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress on Friday appointed senior leader and Lok Sabha MP Mallikarjun Kharge as the AICC general secretary in- charge of Maharashtra. In addition, Sonal Patel, Ashish Dua, and Sampath Kumar have been appointed as the new secretaries for the Congress in Maharashtra, whereas Christopher Tilak and C. D. Meyyappan as AICC secr- etaries of Andhra Pradesh. Incidentally Mr Kharge is also the Leader of the Congress parliamentary party in the Lok Sabha.
The move is seen to end the bickering in the Maharashtra unit of the party. Mr Kharge hails from the neighbouring state of Karnataka and is a senior leader who is acceptable to all. Interestingly, he is also fluent in Marathi.
The previous general secretary in- charge Mohan Prakash was having trouble with certain leaders in the state. Former Union minister and senior leader from Maharashtra Gurudas Kamat had publicly aired his grievances against Mr Prakash. Significantly, Mr Prakash has been stripped of both his charges — earlier of Madhya Pradesh and now Maharashtra.
The Congress has also constituted screening committees for the states Rajasthan, MP, Chattisgarh, Odisha and Mizoram. Senior leader Kumari Selja will be heading the screening committee of Rajasthan, while Madhusudan Mistry will be heading the screening committee of Madhya Pradesh.
Bhubaneshwar Kalita will be heading the screening committee in Chattisgarh. All the three states are slated to go to polls at the end of the year. The party is hopeful coming to power in these three states hence it has started to prepare well in advance.
In May, the party had appointed veteran leader and Lok Sabha MP Kamal Nath as the Madhya Pradesh state unit chief.