Congress begins reshuffle in 4 states after meeting with rebels

New Delhi, Dec 20: The Congress is pushing ahead with changes in its organizational leadership after yesterday’s meeting with the dissidents with an overhaul in leadership in four states — Telangana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
So far, Telangana Congress President Uttam Kumar Reddy has resigned taking responsibility for poor performance in Hyderabad local polls. Gujarat Congress President Amit Chavda has also resigned after the party’s poor performance in Gujarat by polls.
Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, who is the state party president, also holds CLP leader’s post. Mr Nath was said to play a key role in bringing about the top leadership’s meeting with G-23 — as the rebels who sounded the first note of dissidence have been dubbed.
On Saturday, the Congress had made changes in Mumbai Regional Congress Committee. Balasaheb Thorat, who is the Maharashtra Congress president, is also the leader of Maharashtra Congress Legislature Party
The party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi has appointed three All-India Congress Committee (AICC) secretaries each for Assam and Kerala, where Assembly polls are due early next year.
The newly appointed secretaries will assist the general secretaries in-charge of the two states — Jitendra Singh for Assam and Tariq Anwar for Kerala.
Yesterday, Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met the Congress dissidents in a first of a series of meetings to be held over the next 10 days. The meeting was the first step towards reconciliation after months of internal feud over the leadership issue.
While the top leadership agreeing to hold organizational elections — the Working Committee is to take the final call — Rahul Gandhi’s statement at the meeting that he is “ready to work for the party as all desire” is seen as an indication of his return as the party chief.
On Friday, top Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said “99.9 per cent” leaders in the Congress wanted Rahul Gandhi to return as the Congress chief. The dissidents, however, had remained firm on holding elections for every post from top to bottom.
In August, a group of 23 leaders had written an explosive letter, pointing to the drift in party leadership and said they wanted a full-time, “active and visible leadership” and collective decision-making.