Congress Appoints Rajya Sabha MP As Gujarat Unit's New Chief

The Congress on Friday appointed Rajya Sabha MP Shaktisinh Gohil as the new Gujarat PCC president and relieved him from the charge of AICC in-charge of Haryana and Delhi by appointing Deepak Babaria in his place.

"The Congress president has appointed Shaktisinh Gohil as the new Gujarat PCC president and V Vaithilingam, MP, as the new Puducherry PCC president," said an official communication.

"The Congress president has appointed Deepak Babaria as AICC in-charge of Haryana and Delhi with immediate effect," said another official order from the party.

It also said that the party appreciates the contributions of the outgoing AICC in-charge Mr Gohil.

Mr Gohil has replaced Jagdish Thakor, who had resigned after the party's poor performance in the last assembly elections in Gujarat when the party reached its lowest-ever legislator tally.

Mr Gohil has been a former Leader of the Opposition in Gujarat at the time Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister of the state.

By appointing Gohil, who is considered close to Rahul Gandhi, the party is seeking to strengthen the organisation in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

The Congress has remained out of power in Gujarat for over two-and-a-half decades. Meanwhile, the Congress also appointed MLA Varsha Gaikwad as the new president of Mumbai RCC (Regional Congress Committee) by replacing Bhai Jagtap.

Vaithilingam has replaced A V Subramanian as Puducherry PCC chief.

"The party appreciates the contributions of the outgoing PCC/RCC presidents Shri Jagdish Thakor (Gujarat), Shri A V Subramanian (Puducherry) and Shri Bhai Jagtap (Mumbai)," another order said.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has also appointed Mansoor Ali Khan as secretary, AICC attached to the AICC in-charge of Telangana with immediate effect.

Besides, P C Vishnunadh, secretary, AICC is relieved from his current responsibility in Karnataka and is now attached to the AICC in-charge of Telangana.

"The party appreciates the contributions of N S Boseraju and Nadeem Javed and relieves them of their responsibilities as secretaries of AICC," the party said.

In another order, the Congress president also approved the proposal for the appointment of chairmen of various committees, and the constitution of the Disciplinary Action Committee of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee with immediate effect.

While Jagneswar Babu has been appointed chairman of the AICC Programme Implementation Committee for Odisha, Sanjay Tripathy is the new chairman of the Publicity and Publication Committee and Panchanan Kanungo is the chairman of the Manifesto Committee.

The Congress chief also set up a six-member Disciplinary Action Committee for Odisha Pradesh Congress with Santosh Singh Salluja as its chairman and Janaki Ballav Pattanaik as its convenor.

Bhujabala Majhi, Rajendra Chhatria, Debendra Sahoo and Pratima Mallik have been appointed as members of the disciplinary panel for the Odisha Congress.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)