Congress announces reshuffle ahead of Union Cabinet rejig

Zee Media Bureau New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday announced a new working committee ahead of a much talked about rejig of the Union Cabinet which will take place tomorrow evening, a Rashtrapati Bhawan spokesperson said. Speaking to the press, party leader Janardan Dwivedi announced 12 general secretaries and 42 secretaries for the Congress. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will look after frontal organisations while senior party leader Digvijaya Singh has been made general secretary of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa. Ajay Maken, CP Joshi, Ambika Soni, Shakeel Ahmed and Gurudas Kamat have been made new AICC general secretaries. Maken will now be heading the (Congress) media cell, renamed as the communications department which will now include the media department of the party. Priya Dutt will be assisting Maken as secretary. CP Joshi will now look after West Bengal, Assam and Andaman Nicobar islands. Making largescale changes in the organisation, Congress President Sonia Gandhi retained Ahmed Patel as her political secretary but significantly made Ambika Soni as general secretary incharge of the Congress President’s Office (CPO). Soni was the political secretary before Patel replaced her nearly a decade ago. Soni had also held the charge of CPO earlier. Madhusudan Mistri, who hails from Gujarat and is considered close to Rahul, got the charge of key Uttar Pradesh. Moti Lal Vohra will continue to be the treasurer. Hariprasad will look after Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha assisted by Bhakta Charan Das, Shubhankar Sarkar and Tara Chand Bhagora. Oscar Fernandes, Vilas Muttamwar, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Birender Singh were dropped as general secretaries. Among the incharges of various States who failed to get re-nomination were Jagmeet Singh Brar, Jagdish Tytler and Gulchain Singh Charak. Those who have been elevated as general secretaries include Mohan Prakash, Shakeel Ahmed and Luizinho Faleiro who were earlier Permanent Invitees to Congress Working Committee (CWC) and incharge of various States. Congress reshuffle» However, sources have suggested that the changes in the Cabinet are likely to be effected on Tuesday. This will probably be the last reshuffle in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, which are less than a year away. The reshuffle-cum-expansion is expected to be utilised by PM to fill several vacancies in his Council of Ministers. As per sources, Mallikarjun Kharge could be made the new Railway Minister. The latest vacancies in the Council of Ministers were created by the resignations of Union Ministers PK Bansal and Ashwani Kumar. Bansal quit as Railways Minister last month in the wake of bribery scandal involving his nephew and a Railway Board member. Kumar resigned as Law Minister following a controversy over vetting of a CBI probe report on coal blocks allocation scam. Earlier today, CP Joshi also stepped down as Cabinet Minister after Ajay Maken. Both of them had handed over their resignations last night. Their resignations were today accepted by President Pranab Mukherjee with immediate effect, a Rashtrapati Bhawan communique said. Congress reshuffle: Full list CP Joshi: Assam, Bihar, West Bengal & Andaman-Nicobar Janardhan Dwivedi: AICC, CWC organisational elections, sessions and co-ordination

BK Hariprasad: Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha Gurudas Kamat: Gujarat, Rajasthan, Dadra & Nagar Haveli Digvijaya Singh: Andhra Pradesh , Goa, Karnataka Madhusudan Mistry: UP, Central Election Committee Luizinho Faleiro: Arunachal, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim. Tripura, Manipur Shakeel Ahmed: Delhi, Harayana, Punjab, Chandigarh Mukul Wasnik: Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Lakshwadeep Mohan Prakash: Madhya Pradesh , Maharashtra With PTI inputs