From CK Nayak
New Delhi: Just a day after Mukul Wasnik and Sanjay Bapna’s visit to Shillong and one day ahead of the cabinet reshuffle, Congress president Sonia Gandhi replaced the AICC general secretary in charge Meghalaya and his deputy with a new team headed by once in charge of Meghalaya, Luizinho Faleiro.
Faleiro, a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC), was also elevated to the post of general secretary.
Falerio and his team will remain in charge of all the North Eastern states barring Assam which will be looked after the former Union Minister C P Joshi in place of Digvijay Singh who will now look after Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa.
Falerio, a former Goa chief minister, was in charge of Meghalaya before Dr Dhaniram Shandil took over but he continued to look after Tripura, Nagaland and Manipur.
He is also considered instrumental in installing Dr Mukul Sangma as Chief Minister and continued to back him through thick and thin till date.
Rejig in Congress
Earlier, constituting Rahul Gandhi’s team for the 2014 Lok Sabha battle, Congress brought in former Union Ministers Ajay Maken and C P Joshi along with Ambika Soni and Gurudas Kamat as General Secretaries and dropped Ghulam Nabi Azad and Oscar Fernandes.
Making largescale changes in the organisation, Congress President Sonia Gandhi retained Ahmed Patel as her Political Secretary but significantly made Ambika Soni as General Secretary incharge of the Congress President’s Office (CPO).
Addressing reporters at the Congress headquarters here senior leader Janardan Dwivedi said, “the Congress President has reconstituted the Congress Working Committee (CWC) list of office-bearers along with
screening committee for Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Rajasthan.”
Bhupen Kumar Borah (MLA from Assam) K Jaykumar (Tamil Nadu) and Dr Vijay Laxmi Sadho (Madhya Pradesh) are the three new secretaries.
While Borah, a former Assam Youth Congress President, is a new entrant to the AICC in Delhi, Jaykumar and Sadho were in the team earlier in charge of other states and departments.
Though the list was announced in the name of the party President, Rahul’s stamp was visible everywhere since younger leaders were given chance.
“Each general secretary has been given a zone. Rahul Gandhi is going to oversee frontal organisations. There are two attached General Secretaries – Prabha Kishore and Suraj Hegde,” Dwivedi said.
Moti Lal Vohra continues as treasurer while Ajay Maken was given the charge of media and communications. He will be assisted by Priya Dutt.
Dr Hemoprava Saikia, widow of late Assam Chief Minister, Hiteswar Saikia continues to remain in the powerful CWC. (With inputs from PTI)