Digvijay loses charge of Goa, Karnataka

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 29

Signalling that non-performance would be taken seriously, Congress president Sonia Gandhi tonight removed senior leader Digvijay Singh as party general secretary in charge of Goa and poll-bound Karnataka. But he remains party general secretary, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Lok Sabha MP from Alappuzha (Kerala) KC Venugopal has been picked as the new general secretary, Karnataka, while AICC secretary A Chella Kumar has been elevated as Goa incharge.

Venugopal, a confidant of AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi and the party’s deputy whip in the Lok Sabha, will be assisted by four secretaries — Manickam Tagore, PC Vishnunadh, Madhu Yakshi and Sake Saijanath. 

The surprise announcement of Digvijay’s replacement was hailed by many Congress leaders in the wake of the former mishandling the Goa poll verdict. Almost all Congress leaders of Goa and elected MLAs had blamed him for doing too little, too late, thus losing the race for government formation in the state to the BJP. 

Digvijay, the Goa leaders alleged, had allowed the BJP to cobble up a majority even when the Congress had the edge. Former Goa minister Vishwajeet Rane, son of Congress veteran Pratap Sinh Rane, had quit the party, accusing Digvijay of having shown no urgency to form the government. Another Goa Congress leader Savio Rodrigues too had quit. 

But Digvijay blamed state Congress workers for “sabotaging” his proposal for a pre-poll alliance with Goa Forward. Congress sources said the party, not willing to gamble, wanted delivery in states headed for elections, especially Karnataka, where it sees a chance of victory.

Two days ago, Sonia Gandhi had appointed Ashok Gehlot as the new Congress general secretary for poll-bound Gujarat, replacing Gurudas Kamat. Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan could also be headed for a organisational revamp ahead of the Assembly elections.

Mistry on Cong poll panel

Senior Congress leader Madhusudan Mistry has been made member of Congress’ Central Organisational Election Authority (CEA) tasked with conducting internal elections announced  recently. This means he will no longer be general secretary in-charge of Congress’ Central Election Committee (CEC). Mullapally Ramachandran has been named CEA chairman. Punjab MP SS Dullo, Ashk Ali Tak and Biren Engti have been named advisers to CEA.

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