Congress Appoints New Executive For Rajasthan; Sachin Pilot Loyalists In List

Nearly six months after a rebellion by Sachin Pilot, the Congress on Wednesday announced a new executive of its Rajasthan unit.

The party appointed seven vice presidents, eight general secretaries and 24 secretaries to the Pradesh Congress Committee, in an apparent balancing act between the two camps led by Mr Pilot and Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

The new executive, which includes a few MLAs, has some of the leaders considered loyal to former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, who had revolted against Mr Gehlot leading to a bitter month-long stand-off.

Govind Ram Meghwal, Harimohan Sharma, Dr Jitendra Singh, Mahendrajeet Singh Malvia, Naseem Akhtar Insaaf, Rajendra Chaudhary and Ramlal Jat have been appointed as Vice Presidents.

Mr Chaudhary is considered loyal to Mr Pilot.

G R Khatana, P Hakim Ali, Lakhan Meena, Mangilal Garasiya, Prashant Bairwa, Rakesh Parikh, Rita Chaudhary, Ved Solanki were made general secretaries, according to a statement issued by the All India Congress Committee.

Some of the general secretaries like Mr Khatana, Ved Solanki and Mr Parikh are from the Pilot camp.

The party appointed Buraram Sirvi, Deshraj Meena, Gajendra Sankhla, Jaswant Gurjar, Jia-Ul Rehman, Lalit Tunwal, Lalit Yadav, Mahendra Khedi, Mahendra Singh Gurjar, Mukesh Verma and Nimba Ram Garasiya as secretaries.

Phool Singh Ola, Prashant Sharma, Pratisha Yadav, Pushpendra Bhardwaj, Rajendra Moond, Rajendra Yadav, Rakhi Gautam, Ram Singh Kaswan, Ravi Patel, Sachin Sarvate, Shobha Solanki and Vishal Jangir were also named as secretaries.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and PCC chief Govind Singh Dotasra, who had replaced Pilot as the state party president after the rebellion, congratulated the newly appointed office-bearers.

Mr Gehlot had pipped Mr Pilot in the race for chief ministership after the party's victory in the 2018 assembly polls.

The stand-off between the two in July last year had brought the Congress-led government to the brink of collapse but the party's central leadership brought about a truce with the formation of a three-member committee to look into Mr Pilot's grievances.

Thanking the Congress president for the new executive, Mr Gehlot expressed the hope it will succeed in taking the party's principles, programmes and policies to villages.