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Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Senior Congress leader , who had rebelled against party interim chief Sonia Gandhi at the recent Congress Working Committee team, has been sacked from the general secretary position in a major reshuffle, announced on Friday. Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad was the most prominent of the “dissent” letter writers seen to have questioned the leadership of the Gandhis.
The dissent letter was seen to be a veiled attack on the Gandhis, especially Rahul Gandhi, who quit as president last year over the Congress’s election defeat. Over the past few months, the Congress has been sharply divided with the veterans ranged against what is known to be Rahul Gandhi’s core group, which is rooting for his return to the top job.
The biggest gainer from the reshuffle is Rahul Gandhi loyalist Randeep Surjewala, who has been inducted in the high-power six-member panel that advises the Congress president.
Ghulam Nabi Azad, who was in charge of Haryana, has been replaced by Vivek Bansal.
Another senior leader, Jitin Prasad was also promoted despite being a signatory on the controversial letter to Sonia Gandhi. Prasad has been appointed as the in-charge for West Bengal, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will continue to be in charge of Uttar Pradesh, while Rahul Gandhi loyalist Manickam Tagore will be the new secretary in-charge for Telangana.
Pawan Kumar Bansal will be the secretary in charge administration, Harish Rawat to be general secretary in-charge Punjab, Tariq Anwar to be in-charge for Kerala and Lakshadweep, Jitendra Singh in-charge Assam, and Oommen Chandy will be in-charge for Andhra Pradesh.
New members of the Congress Working Committee will be – Digvijay Singh, Rajiv Shukla, Manickam Tagore, Pramod Tiwari, Jairam Ramesh, HK Patil, Salman Khurshid, Pawan Bansal, Dinesh Gundurao, Manish Chatrath and Kuljit Nagra.
Apart from Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni, Motilal Vora and Mallikarjun Kharge have also been removed from their posts of AICC general secretaries. However, Ambika Soni has been included in the special committee formed to assist Sonia Gandhi in organisational matters.
The special committee members include AK Antony, Ahmed Patel, KC Venugopal and Mukul Wasnik, apart from Ambika Soni and Randeep Surjewala.
“The party whole-heartedly appreciates the contributions of outgoing General Secretaries Ghulam Nabi Azad, Motial Vora, Ambika Soni, Mallikarjun Kharge and Luizinho Faleiro,” said a letter signed off by Sonia Gandhi.
