New Delhi: In a major reshuffle of the party, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday removed Ghulam Nabi Azad, Motilal Vora, Ambika Soni, Mallikarjun Kharge as AICC general secretaries, and reconstituted CWC and appointed P Chidambaram, Randeep Surjewala, Tariq Anwar and Jitendra Singh as its regular members.
Gandhi also removed Luizinho Faleiro as AICC general secretaries, and formed a special committee to assist her in party matters.
“The party whole-heartedly appreciates the contributions of outgoing General Secretaries Ghulam Nabi Azad, Motial Vora, Ambika Soni, Mallikarjun Kharge and Luizinho Faleiro,” said a letter signed off by Sonia Gandhi.
The new members in the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision making body, will replace Faleiro, Vora, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Tamradhwaj Sahu.
The six-member special committee, formed to assist her in organisational and operational matters, will have AK Antony, Ahmed Patel, Ambika Soni, KC Venugopal, Mukul Wasnik and Randeep Surjewala as its members.
Surjewala has also been made the general secretary in-charge for Congress affairs in Karnataka.
From the ‘group of 23′ leaders, who had written letter to Gandhi seeking Congress’ overhaul, Azad and Sharma continue to be regular members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), while Jitin Prasada has been made a permanent invitee to CWC from being a special invitee earlier. Prasada has also been made in-charge of party affairs in West Bengal.
Mr Azad and other signatories to the letter were attacked as “traitors” at the August 24 meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), in which both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were present.
The meeting ended with the Congress declaring that Sonia Gandhi would remain interim chief until an All India Congress Committee (AICC) session in the next six months. It was reportedly also decided that the party would examine the grievances of the letter writers.