Congress to Contest J&K, Jharkhand Assembly Polls Under New Team, Tweaks Maha Unit

In a clever move, the Congress appointed permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee Tariq Hameed Karra as the new J&K unit chief and in turn shifted ex PCC chief Viqar Rasool Wani to a central position as special invitee to the CWC.

New Delhi : The Congress high command decided to go to polls in UT Jammu and Kashmir and in Jharkhand under a new leadership to maximize electoral benefits there.

Following inputs from the state and UT units, the high command including former chief Rahul Gandhi and incumbent chief Mallikarjun Kharge decided to appoint new team heads in both J&K, where assembly polls will be held in three phases on Sep 18, 25 and Oct 1 and in Jharkhand where assembly polls are likely to be held later this year along with Maharashtra.

In a clever move, the Congress appointed permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee Tariq Hameed Karra as the new J&K unit chief and in turn shifted ex PCC chief Viqar Rasool Wani to a central position as special invitee to the CWC.

According to party insiders, a section of state workers was upset with the style of functioning of Wani. Karra replaced Wani as he is an ex-PDP leader and has a strong anti-BJP stance.

Karra defeated Farooq Abdullah the Congress-NC joint candidate in 2014 Lok Sabha election in Srinagar but later joined the Congress in 2017 after PDP joined hands with the BJP to form a coalition government in the erstwhile state.

“As J&K PCC chief Karra will counter both the PDP and the BJP in the assembly polls and would push the party’s prospects in the Kashmir valley,” a senior AICC functionary said.

In another key appointment in J&K, the high command named veteran Tara Chand as the new working president of the UT unit to counter ex Congress Ghulam Nabi Azad and push the grand old party’s prospects in the crucial Jammu region.

Tara Chand had left the Congress to join Azad’s party DPAP in 2022 but later returned to the grand old party after having realized his mistake.

Besides Tara Chand, the high command decided to retain veteran Raman Bhalla, who had contested the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from the Jammu seat, as another working president of the UT unit.

As far as ex PCC chief Viqar Rasool Wani is concerned, he had managed Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra well and had successfully countered DPAP over the past two years, which explained his accommodation in the CWC, said party insiders.

“The UT unit will do very well under the new PCC chief,” AICC in charge J&K Bharat Sinh Solanki told ETV Bharat.

In Jharkhand, the party had been toying with the idea of having a new team over the past months as several complaints against ex PCC chief Rajesh Thakur, known for hobnobbing with JMM leadership, reached AICC.

Now, Keshav Mahto Kamlesh, a Tribal leader will steer the party in Jharkhand where the Congress also appointed veteran Rameshwar Oraon as the new leader in the assembly. Oraon replaces former CLP leader Alamgir Alam who is in jail in an alleged corruption case.

Mahto will now supervise the proposed yatra in around 35 assembly seats in the state to be started by month end. The Congress recently got two new cabinet berths.

On his part, Thakur thanked the workers for their cooperation over the past years and apologized for any mistakes committed inadvertently.

The Congress made some changes in the Maharashtra Congress where former CLP leader Balasaheb Thorat has been made a CWC member, working president Arif Naseem Khan is now special invitee to CWC and Syed Muzaffar Hussain is the new working president of state unit.