Eye on 2024 polls, Kharge announces his new team of younger and experienced leaders

The changes had been expected since Mallikarjun Kharge took office in October 2022. Finally, a team of young turks and veteran leaders have been announced by Kharge ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha to take on the BJP, writes ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi:Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday announced his new team, a mix of younger and experienced leaders, factoring in the recent assembly poll losses and with an eye on winning the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The changes had been expected since Kharge took office in October 2022 and later since August when the Congress chief reconstituted the Congress Working Committee.

The recent poll losses in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan seem to have pushed the Congress chief to announce his new team. Among the big takeaways from the allocation of AICC, portfolios included veteran Avinash Pande getting the charge of politically crucial Uttar Pradesh. Pande will replace Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who has not been allotted any portfolio.

UP sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha and the Congress is exploring an alliance with the SP, RLD and possibly BSP to take on the BJP in the state. Pande’s satisfactory work as in-charge of Jharkhand got him UP and now he will interact with leaders like Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati and Jayant Chaudhary and others to strengthen the INDIA alliance and also revive the grand old party in the home state of the Gandhis.

The second big change Rajasthan leader Sachin Pilot, who was recently included in the CWC and now gets the charge of Chhattisgarh, where the Congress lost the assembly polls recently despite being hopeful of retaining power. Pilot will replace veteran Kumari Selja, who has now been given the charge of BJP-ruled Uttarakhand. Pilot has the experience of turning around the party’s fortunes in his home state Rajasthan and will now be tasked with ensuring a decent haul of parliamentary seats from the tribal state.

In another key change, Assam in-charge Jitendra Singh has been given additional charge of BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, where the Congress was hopeful of winning but lost to the saffron party recently. Singh was head of the Screening Committee for MP. During the polls, Randeep Surjewala held the additional charge of Madhya Pradesh.

Furthermore, CWC member Ghulam Ahmed Mir will replace Avinash Pande as in-charge of Jharkhand where the Congress has an alliance with JMM and RJD while veteran Mohan Prakash gets the charge of neighbouring Bihar where the Congress has an alliance with RJD, JD-U and the Left parties.

Mir has also been given additional charge of West Bengal where the Congress is exploring alliances with the Left parties and the TMC. Former Gujarat unit chief Bharatsinh Solanki will replace veteran Rajani Patil as in-charge of sensitive UT of Jammu and Kashmir where the party is reviving itself and is also preparing for the assembly polls to be held by September next year. Former Uttarakhand in-charge Devender Yadav will replace Harish Chaudhary as in-charge of Punjab where the high command has to decide whether or not to have an alliance with ruling AAP.

Senior leader Deepa Dasmunshi will replace AICC in-charge of Kerala Tariq Anwar and will also get an additional charge of Telangana where the party recently came to power. Kerala veteran and CWC member Ramesh Chennithala will replace HK Patil as in-charge of Maharashtra where the party has an alliance with NCP and Shiv Sena UBT.

Former Odisha in-charge Chella Kumar gets the charge of Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh while Ajoy Kumar will be in-charge of Odisha and get additional charge of Tamil Nadu where the Congress has an alliance with DMK. Former Telangana in-charge Manikrao Thakre, who delivered the southern state, will now get Goa, Daman Diu and Nagar Haveli. Former Goa in-charge Manickam Tagore gets Andhra Pradesh where the party has become hopeful after its success in Telangana besides Andaman and Nicobar while Girish Chodankar gets Tripura, Sikkim, Manipur and Nagaland.

Those who have retained their posts are Randeep Surjewala in Karnataka, Dipak Babaria in Delhi and Haryana, Mukul Wasnik in Gujarat, Rajeev Shukla in Himachal Pradesh, SS Randhawa in Rajasthan, Jairam Ramesh in communication, Ajay Maken as treasurer and KC Venugopal as head of the organisation.

Maken gets two assistants Milind Deora and Vijay Inder Singla as joint treasurer and will boost the party’s finances. Kharge also made some changes in his office and appointed Rajya Sabha member and CWC member Syed Naser Hussain as in-charge of the Congress president’s office, given the party’s interest in getting a good number of parliamentary seats in Karnataka. Gurdeep Sappal will be in-charge of administration.