Ahead of the crucial assembly elections in Karnataka in 2018, one of the few States in which the Congress is still in power, the party leadership replaced senior leader Digvijaya Singh as in-charge of the State on Saturday with K.C. Venugopal.
And in what is being read as a reflection of Mr. Singh’s failure to put together a Congress government in Goa, where the party had emerged ahead of its rivals recently (though short of a majority), Mr Singh has been replaced by party secretary Dr. A. Chella Kumar.
While it was not clear whether Mr Digvijaya Singh will remain general secretary, Mr. Venugopal, the 54-year-old Kerala MP and Deputy Chief Whip of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, is clearly a rising star and has been elevated to the post of general secretary. In the case of Goa, Dr. Chella Kumar, the 56-year-old former MLA from Tamil Nadu remains a Secretary.
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Along with these two appointments, four secretaries have been appointed for Karnataka — former MPs Madhu Goud Yashki and Manickam Tagore, P.C. Vishnunadh and Dr Sake Sailjanath.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s son, Amit Deshmukh has been appointed secretary for Goa.
These appointments, that come on the heels of former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot being appointed general secretary in charge of poll-bound Gujarat, replacing Gurudas Kamat, party sources told
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Simultaneously, on Saturday, a former Rahul Gandhi favourite, Madhusudan Mistry, was dropped as general secretary. Instead, he has been made a Member of the Central Election Authority for the organisational elections that are to be completed by mid-October.
Mullapally Ramachandran is the chairman of the committee, while Bhubaneswar Kalita is the other member. The Advisory Committee of the CEA has also been named.