New Delhi: Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge will appoint three new general secretaries in charge for Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat after reviewing the organisational changes. “The organisational changes need to be done to prepare for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Review meetings will be conducted ahead of the changes,” said a senior AICC functionary.
According to party insiders, new AICC in charges in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra have to be appointed as incumbents Dinesh Gundu Rao and HK Patil respectively have become ministers in the new Karnataka government headed by Chief Minister K Siddaramaiah. Hence, they would not be able to discharge their party duties.
In Gujarat, AICC in-charge Raghu Sharma submitted his resignation to Kharge soon after the party’s dismal performance in the 2022 Assembly elections, but the matter was pending in the Congress chief’s office. Raghu Sharma is also an MLA in Rajasthan where Assembly polls will take place later this year and has to devote most of the time there, said party insiders.
Hence, the need for a new AICC in charge of Gujarat, which is important for the Congress, as it sends 26 members to the Lok Sabha and is also the home state of both PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. In January, Kharge appointed Amit Chavda as the new CLP leader in the Gujarat assembly, but he is yet to decide on a new face to replace PCC chief Jagdish Thakor. According to party insiders, several senior Gujarat leaders had met Kharge recently and demanded a new AICC in charge to steer the party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Similar issues exist in Maharashtra, which sends 48 members to the Lok Sabha. While Kharge has to find a replacement for veteran HK Patil, who is AICC in charge of the state, the Congress chief is also faced with demands for naming a new PCC chief also. At present, Nana Patole is the PCC chief in Maharashtra, but has been facing opposition from a section of the state leaders, who recently met Kharge and urged him to appoint a new state unit chief.
Days after Kharge reviewed the Maharashtra political situation with former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, Patole’s supporters landed in Delhi where they met Kharge and urged him not to change the PCC chief. Kharge has been miffed over infighting in the Maharashtra unit for a long and had in February deployed veteran Kerala leader Ramesh Chennithala as his special envoy to look into the issues in the western state and submit a report immediately. This was done after serious differences had surfaced between Nana Patole and CLP leader Balasahab Thorat over the MLC polls.
According to party insiders, Chennithala’s report will be used by Kharge to finalise the new state appointments. The Congress is part of an alliance with Shiv Sena UBT and NCP in Maharashtra and wants to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls jointly. For that, smooth coordination between the allies is needed, said party insiders, while noting that Patole at times targets NCP boss Sharad Pawar. Tamil Nadu, where the Congress is a junior partner of the ruling DMK, is not much of a problem as the party would have to jointly contest the polls for the state’s 39 Lok Sabha seats.
