Another Rahul man to head Cong media dept
Many stalwarts vying for the post of the head of the AICC Communication Department were set aside by Sonia Gandhi on Thursday, while anointing to the post lawyer-turned former Haryana minister Randeep Surjewala (47), who was picked up as one of the party spokesmen by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi a-year-ago. Surjewala is an educated Jat leader who comes from a political family of Chaudhary Shamsher Singh, a minister in Haryana for umpteen years. He is a former Indian Youth Congress President from 2000 to 2005 and now an MLA in Haryana. He fills the slot vacated by former union minister Ajay Maken on getting appointed as Delhi Congress President. He had shot to fame on twice defeating former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala in 1996 and again in 2005 with a big margin and became the youngest cabinet minister under then Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in March 2005. He entered electoral politics through an Assembly byelection in 1993 from Kaithal and has been winning all elections since then. Selection of Surjewala ignoring the stalwarts sent yet another signal of Rahul now in command in the organisational shakeup as his hand was clearly visible also in the appointment of the chiefs of the party’s state units in six states, including Delhi, Maharashtra and Mumbai last Monday. Those who were vying for the post that involves almost a daily interaction with the party leadership to communicate the Congress stand on various issues included Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, and former union ministers Anand Sharma and Jairam Ramesh. Even former Punjab Governor Shivraj Patil had shown interest for the post he held once to return to active politics General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi, however, created a speculation that Surjewala may be a stop-gap arrangement till a new chairman is finalised as he described his appointment in a press note as in-charge of the communication department “till further notification.” Surjewala is the youngest head of the media department as even his predecessor Ajay Maken assumed the post when he was two years elder at 49 from Dwivedi in June 2013. The post has been held in past by senior leaders like Pranab Mukherjee, late V N Gadgil, late Nawal Kishore Sharma, Shivraj Patil, Ambika Soni, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Veerappa Moily. Surjewala has a good bilingual skill of airing views both in English and Hindi that made him popular among the journalists covering the Congress.