HP MLA Asha Kumari Punjab Cong incharge

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 26

In a surprise move, the Congress today named 61-year-old Asha Kumari, five-time party MLA from Himachal Pradesh, the new incharge of Punjab affairs days after a controversy triggered the ouster of previously appointed general secretary Kamal Nath.

Asha Kumari, AICC secretary in charge of Haryana, will continue to handle the role apart from now looking after election-bound Punjab.

Asha will, however, only handle Punjab as its incharge, a position separate from general secretary’s. 

Asked if this means the party won’t appoint any general secretary for Punjab, a senior leader said, “Once an incharge has been named, it isn’t essential that a general secretary will be named. For example, PC Chacko has now been incharge of Delhi for long without the state having any general secretary. However, the decision on whether to appoint a general secretary is up to the party high command.”

The Congress was considering former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit as general secretary for Punjab but the matter was kept pending in the wake of AAP lodging an FIR against her in the tanker scam in Delhi.

Even Asha has her set of controversies. She was in February this year convicted by a Himachal court in a land grab case and sentenced to one-year imprisonment. She is currently out on bail, with the Congress rivals likely to use the issue against her.

AAP had earlier targeted Kamal Nath for his alleged role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, leading to his ouster as general secretary, Punjab.

That apart, Asha Kumari is known to have organisational skills and is a close confidant of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Daughter of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Secretary Madneshwar Saran Singh Deo, Asha is a founder-member of Congress youth wing NSUI and has served in the Virbhadra Singh cabinet when she was close to the CM. 

Asha hails from an MP royal family and was married into the Chamba royalty. She represents Dalhousie and is a prominent face of the anti-Virbhadra camp at present. 

Her elevation is seen as a major promotion and perhaps a stepping stone to general secretary-ship. Shakeel Ahmad, the replaced Punjab general secretary, too, was first named state incharge before being elevated as general secretary.