The Congress on Thursday appointed a new general secretary, 58-year-old ex-Rajya Sabha MP, Avinash Pande, along with four secretaries, for Rajasthan that will go to the polls late next year.
The appointment of Mr. Pande, a first-time national general secretary — along with that of K.C. Venugopal, the new general secretary for Karnataka — is evidence of the start of a generational transition.
New State chiefs
Simultaneously, Punjab and Uttarakhand that went to the polls recently have new State chiefs — Sunil Jakhar replaces Captain Amarinder Singh, now Chief Minister of Punjab, while Pritam Singh takes over from Kishore Upadhyay in Uttarakhand.
Mr. Jakhar, 63, was the Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly (2012-17) and is the son of former Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jakhar.
Mr. Pande will be assisted by a new team of four secretaries, Vivek Bansal, Qazi Mohammed Nizamuddin, Devendra Yadav and Tarun Kumar. Sachin Pilot remains State PCC chief.
Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh and lawyer Vivek Tankha will now head the party’s Legal Department.
The announcements made by Congress communication chief Randeep Surjewala are in line with the changes initiated by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi. Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Goa have already seen some changes.
Organisational elections
Mr. Surjewala said the process of organisational elections was under way and the restructuring would be completed by mid-October.
Thus far, 17 new office-bearers had been appointed: 10 were under 50 years of age, seven were OBCs, he said, adding that the new appointees were a mix of experience and youth, and due weightage had been given to those who had come through the frontal organisations of the party, especially its youth wings.
