The Hindu : Sonia falls back on old guard

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 03, 2003

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Sonia falls back on old guard

By Javed M. Ansari

NEW DELHI MAY 2. The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, today reshuffled her AICC team for the fifth time in as many years, adding two new general secretaries and six secretaries. The reshuffle saw Ambica Soni, relinquish charge as the political secretary to the Congress president and the general secretary in charge of Kerala, and Chhattisgarh.

She will however continue to be general secretary in charge of the Congress president's office and the chairperson of the media department.

This in all probability is the last reshuffle, as the party gets into election mode, for the States going to the polls later this year, and the general elections of 2004.

In choosing her team Mrs. Gandhi appears to have fallen back on the old guard, R.K. Dhawan and Nawal Kishore Sharma, both of whom have been brought back as general secretaries.

She has also sought to prepare her party for the polls by rationalising the caste balance and allocation of work at the AICC level.

The number of general secretaries has been raised from six to eight, and the number of AICC secretaries has risen to 24. Her decision to resurrect Mr. Sharma and assign him to Uttar Pradesh is being seen as an attempt to woo the Brahmins and her bid to shift focus to the State.

The six new secretaries are Avtaar Singh Bhadana, Sarfaraz Ahamad, Harikesh Bahadur, Jairam Ramesh, Anita Verma and Ganga Charan Rajput.

The low-profile Ahamad Patel has been retained political secretary to the Congress president, and given additional charge of the crisis-ridden states of Kerala and Delhi. Mr. Dhawan has been put in charge of Bihar and Jharkhand, while Mr. Sharma has been given charge of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

Apart from Mr. Sharma, Mrs. Gandhi has also rehabilitated the former Maharashtra Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh and Meira Kumar by inducting them into the CWC, while Brijoy Handi and Janardhan Dwivedi have been appointed special invitees.

While Noor Bano, Lok Sabha MP has been inducted into the central election committee (CEC), L.P. Shahi has been shifted from the CWC to the CEC. In another significant development, Jaffer Sharief has now been assigned the responsibility of looking after the minorities department.

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