Rahul Gandhi appoints young leaders at key posts in Gujarat, Odisha Congress

Congress president Rahul Gandhi appointed Jitendra Singh as in-charge of the party affairs in Odisha and Rajeev Satav as in-charge of the party affairs in Gujarat.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday appointed young leaders Jitendra Singh and Rajeev Satav as in-charge of the party affairs in Odisha and Gujarat respectively in the key organisational change days after the party’s plenary session.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi speaks during national executive meeting of All India Unorganised Workers Congress at AICC headquarters in New Delhi on Thursday. (PTI photo)

Singh, a former Union minister and a key aide of Gandhi, will replace senior leader and general secretary BK Hariprasad, who offered his resignation soon after the party’s drubbing in the panchayat elections in Odisha last year.

The party will try to revive its political fortunes in Odisha, where assembly elections are scheduled to be held next year. The race for 2019 is wide open mainly due to anti-incumbency sentiments against many of chief minister Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal’s 117 MLAs.

Satav, Lok Sabha MP from Hingoli in Maharashtra and a former Youth Congress president, will replace another senior leader Ashok Gehlot in Gujarat. He was one of the four secretaries, including Harshvardhan Sapkal, Varsha Gaikwad and Jeetu Patwari, who assisted Gehlot in the November-December polls in Gujarat.

Former Rajasthan chief minister Gehlot was appointed the general secretary in-charge of Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Gujarat in April last year ahead of the polls. The Congress failed to oust the saffron party from Gujarat even after 22 years of its rule in the elections.

Gandhi also removed Mahendra Joshi as the chief organiser of the Seva Dal, a frontal organisation of the Congress, and appointed Gujarat leader Lalji Desai in his place.