Taking on a more active role in organisational affairs, Rahul Gandhi, scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family, was on Monday appointed Congress general secretary in a party reshuffle that saw the induction of several new faces including three ministers in the Manmohan Singh government.
The 37-year old MP from Amethi, who had announced at the party plenary in Hyderabad last year that he was ready to take on any responsibility in the party, has been given charge of the Youth Congress and the NSUI. Party workers, who celebrated Rahul’s formal induction into the top leadership of the AICC in conventional Congress fashion with fanfare, are already comparing the development to Rajiv Gandhi’s similar induction in the 80’s and his subsequent ascension to prime ministership.
The long awaited reshuffle depicted a change of guard with the second generation of the party now clearly at the helm of affairs in the AICC. With the exception of Motilal Vora, Mohsina Kidwai and Oscar Fernances, a majority of the leaders appointed general secretaries on Monday along with Rahul are either taking up the responsibility for the first time, or have had only a few years of experience. The first timers are Prithviraj Chavan, minister of state in the PMO and senior MP V Kishore Chandra Deo. Ajay Maken, another minister of state has also been entrusted with charge of two states. While making the announcements, party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi asserted that Ahmed Patel continues as political secretary to the Congress president.
Besides Rahul, several young faces like Jitin Prasada, Sandeep Dikshit, Priya Dutt and Sachin Pilot too have been drafted into the organisation. Congress president Sonia Gandhi also created a new cell called ‘Group to look into future challenges’ that has minister of state for commerce Jairam Ramesh as its convenor.
Sonia seemed to have taken recourse to a pragmatic approach while effecting the reshuffle. Most of the old guards have now been assigned responsibilities pertaining to policy and strategic matters. The CWC and the manifesto committee, hence are slots for the familiar faces. Among those who have been dropped include MM Jacob, Harikesh Bahadur and Noor Bano.
Four new state presidents have been appointed, including Rita Bahuguna, daughter of the late HN Bahuguna, replacing Salman Khursheed. In Punjab, former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal replacing Shamsher Singh Dullo, while in Rajasthan CP Joshi comes in place of BD Kalla and in Uttarakhand Yashpal Arya takes over from Harish Rawat.