Congress has appointed Harish Chaudhary as head of AICC in Punjab.
With an eye on the Punjab elections early next year, Congress has appointed Rajasthan's revenue minister Harish Chaudhary as head of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in Punjab and Chandigarh with immediate effect. Mr Chaudhary replaces former Uttarakhand chief minister and five-time member of parliament Harish Singh Rawat.
Mr Chaudhary was the observer in charge of Punjab during the recent change of leadership where Captain Amarinder Singh was replaced by Charanjit Channi as chief minister. He was also Punjab in-charge of the party during the 2017 assembly elections.
He has served as the national secretary of the AICC and is currently a member of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly from the Baytu constituency in the Barmer district of the state. He was also elected Member of Parliament in 2009 from the Barmer-Jaisalmer constituency in Rajasthan but lost in the 2014 general elections.
AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal said that Mr Rawat is "being relieved" of his current responsibilities as AICC General Secretary In-Charge for Punjab and Chandigarh but will continue as a member of the Congress Working Committee.
Mr Rawat had been requesting the party leadership to relieve him from the Punjab Congress in-charge duty as he wanted to focus on Uttarakhand elections due next year, news agency ANI reported. Uttarakhand has seen three BJP chief ministers in the same term, two of them this year itself, and as Congress's tallest leader in the state, Mr Rawat will focus on exploiting this opportunity.