NEW DELHI, July 17 ? None of the senior Congress leaders from North Eastern Region barring former Mizoram Chief Minister, Lal Thanhawla found place in the reshuffled AICC. The keenly awaited reshuffle proved to be bad news for the Congress leaders of the Region as the new look AICC would have only one face from North-east. Former Mizoram Chief Minister replaces Minister of State for Defence, Bijoy Krishna Handique in the all-powerful Congress Working Committee (CWC) as permanent invitee. That apart, Kirip Chaliha has been appointed as a whip in the reconstituted Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP).
G Venkatswami has been nominated as deputy leader of the CPP in Lok Sabha, Paban Kumar Bansal Chief Whip and Krishna Tirath deputy chief, according to the announcement made by General Secretary, Ambika Soni. Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Digvijay Singh has been inducted into 23-member CWC and would continue to look after Assam and Orissa besides Andhra Pradesh, which is a new addition. Earlier, he was a special CWC invitee.
Ramesh Chennithala is a new entrant to Congress in North-east and he has been given charge of Aruanchal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. He replaces Salman Khursid and Oscar Fernandes who were handling these States. Meanwhile, the AICC reshuffle was bad news for some of hopefuls like APCC president, Paban Singh Ghatowar, senior leaders like Omem Deuri, Rishang Keishing, Mukut Mithi who were waiting in the wings to make an entry into the AICC.
The other tall leader of the Party in the North-east, former Nagaland Chief Minister, S.C.Jamir has been made Governor of Goa. His son and former Rajya Sabha MP Apok Jamir was tipped to be made one of the secretaries in the AICC. His name too was missing. A senior Congress leader said that absence of Congress leaders from the Region in the AICC was surprising given the stakes the Party has in the North-east, which has by and large been its bastion.
Currently the Party rules in the States of Assam, Meghalaya and Manipur and hopes to wrest Arunachal Pradesh, which shortly goes to polls from the BJP. Congress president, Sonia Gandhi has completed the exercise and what she has presented today was the first view, said Smt. Soni hinting that more appointments were in the offing.
Incidentally the Congress president has dissolved with immediate effect, all other departments and cells of the AICC, it was announced. When asked about the low presence of leaders from North-east in the AICC, Smt Soni said that the Party would continue to get inputs from the Region as chief ministers of the Congress-ruled States are special invitees to the CWC. Meanwhile, the new-look AICC would be mixture of old and new faces as veteran Congress leaders share responsibility with young ones. While Permanent invitees and Special Invitees of CWC are tried and tested hands of the Congress Party, most of the 25 secretaries are new faces.
The surprise exclusion was Rahul Gandhi who was to be given important responsibility in the Party. Smt. Gandhi has not gone in for major change as some of the old trouble-shooters of the Party were retained. Ahmed Patil continues to be Political Secretary to Congress president, though Smt Soni?s wings have been clipped. She has been removed from the influential post of chairman of the Media Department.