Digvijay replaces Azad

Kavuri made permanent member of CWC, Chinna Reddy AICC secretary; Ponguleti dropped

Venkat Parsa New Delhi: AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh has been made the new in-charge of Andhra Pradesh. He succeeds Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who has relinquished the post of AICC General Secretary in the revamp carried out on Sunday on the principle of one-man-one-post, along with Union Defence Minister A K Antony, who has been relieved of party post. Azad continues to be in the highest policy-making body of the party, the Congress Working Committee (CWC).

According to party sources, Azad had urged Congress President Sonia Gandhi seeking to be relieved of party post since he is handling a high-profile social sector Health Ministry. Sonia Gandhi is keen on implementing several special schemes like the Janani Suraksha and National Health Mission covering rural and urban areas that come under the Health Ministry.

As AICC General Secretary in-charge of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Odisha, Azad feels he is unable to give full attention to the Health Ministry. Sonia has promised him that in the reshuffle it will be given effect, which finally materialised on Sunday. While Kavuri Sambasiva Rao has been made Permanent Invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC), G Sanjeeva Reddy has been made Special Invitee. There are still four vacancies in the CWC.

G Chinna Reddy is AICC Secretary attached to AICC General Secretary Mukul Wasnik, in-charge of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and Lakshadweep. AICC Secretary V Hanumanth Rao is unattached. The two Union Ministers who resigned, C P Joshi and Ajay Maken, have been appointed AICC General Secretaries. The other AICC General Secretaries are Digvijay Singh, Ambika Soni, B K Hariprasad, Gurudas Kamat, Janardhan Dwivedi, Luizinho Faleiro, Madhusudhan Mistry, Mohan Prakash, Mukul Wasnik and Shakeel Ahmed.

Congress President's Political Secretary Ahmed Patel and AICC Treasurer Motilal Vora have been left undisturbed. Madhusudhan Mistry, who is the new blue-eyed boy of Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, has been given charge of Uttar Pradesh. This is the State of focus for Nehru-Gandhi family scion, as he feels that unless and until the Congress improves its fortunes in Uttar Pradesh that returns 80 MPs, the party cannot hope to return to power at the Centre. Joshi, another confidante of Rahul Gandhi, has been given charge of yet another focus State of the Congress, Bihar.

AICC Screening Committees have also been set up for the election-going States of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Rajasthan and Mizoram for the selection of candidates for the Assembly polls due in October-November this year. Announcing the reshuffle of key posts in Congress, party leader Janardan Dwivedi announced 12 general secretaries and 42 secretaries for the Congress. This will probably be the last reshuffle in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet before the Lok Sabha elections, which are less than a year away.