The one-man-one-post formulation is set to stage a comeback in the Congress as the party leadership turns its attention to an organisational reshuffle, to fill up the slots left vacant by office-bearers who joined the government last month and to appease those left out of the race.
Informed party sources on Wednesday said that the reshuffle would take place ?soon?, ?within the month?.
At least four new general-secretaries are expected to be appointed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, as replacements for Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mukul Wasnik, Prithiviraj Chavan and V Narayansami, all of whom have become ministers.
The one-man-one-post formulation was incorporated in the party constitution after an amendment passed in the AICC session in 1994. It was initiated by detractors of then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao as an attempt to prevent him from holding the post of Congress president as well as prime minister, but the latter successfully scuttled their efforts by getting the amendment passed with the caveat that it would not be applicable to the Congress president.
Subsequently, the Congress president was accorded the power to waive the norm, as a result of which Ms Gandhi, in the last five years that the Congress has been in power, has appointed general secretaries who were also ministers.
In the current dispensation, others who are holding dual posts include law minister Veerappa Moily, who continues to be in charge of Andhra Pradesh and Assam. Defence minister AK Antony holds charge of Maharashtra.
The reshuffle exercise would include changes at the state level. The leadership will be looking for a new PCC chief in Rajasthan since CP Joshi is now rural development minister. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee holds the post of PCC chief of West Bengal, although party circles are certain he will be among the exceptions and continue in the post, at least until the 2011 Assembly elections.