From CK Nayak
NEW DELHI: In a boost to the rebel Congress MLAs, the AICC on Friday removed once powerful General Secretary in-charge of Meghalaya Luizinho Faleiro and appointed Maish Chatrath in his place.
In fact, Falerio has been removed from charges of all the Northeastern states. He also does not hold any other party position in the first major shakeup in the troubled party.
Chatrath who handled different responsibilities at different times including handling general elections will also look after Arunachal Pradesh in addition.
Incidentally, the rebel Congress MLAs led by former Speaker Charles Pyngrope were not happy with Faleiro since he did not even call a meeting to find an active MPCC President.
The meeting was called only when the rebels shot off a letter to the party President but again their demand was pushed under the carpet.
Chatrath is from New Delhi and was quite active in the “war room” of the party which is the hub of crucial activities during critical times. He worked with the senior most Congressman Motilal Vora who has also ceded his age-old positions.
All the Northeastern states including Assam which are going to polls next year have new in charge. Assam will now be looked after by Jitendra Singh as general secretary and incumbent Harish Rawat will now look after Punjab.
Former Union Minister from Odisha, Bhakta Charan Das, has been given charge of Manipur and Mizoram. Kuljit Singh Nagra will be in-charge of Tripura, Nagaland and Sikkim — the three states where the party has been decimated.
The biggest ever reshuffle in recent times brought out by Congress president Sonia Gandhi changed the entire AICC organisation and named nine general secretaries.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, among the dissenters who had written to Sonia Gandhi seeking changes in the party set-up, has been replaced by Vivek Bansal as the Haryana general secretary.
Former Union Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has been made AICC in-charge of administration, replacing Motilal Vora.
Former Haryana MLA and AICC media in-charge Randeep Surjewala has been appointed as AICC General Secretary of Karnataka, while Rajeev Shukla has been appointed as the in-charge of Himachal Pradesh.