The Congress reshuffled its organisational ladder on Thursday and appointed new presidents for Uttarakhand and Punjab. The party also appointed a General Secretary in-charge for Rajasthan, and named a new chief for its legal cell.

Sunil Jakhar will succeed Amarinder Singh as president of Congress’ Punjab unit. As Singh took over as Chief Minister after the recent Assembly elections, the appointment of a new PCC chief was due. Pritam Singh replaces Kishore Upadhyay in Uttarakhand, where the party faced a massive defeat in the State elections.

AICC Secretary Avinash Pande, a former Rajya Sabha MP and legislator from Maharashtra, was appointed in-charge of Rajasthan, which goes to the polls in 2018.

A new team of four AICC secretaries, including Vivek Bansal, Qazi Mohammed Nizamuddin, Devendra Yadav and Tarun Kumar will assist Pande.

The Congress had recently appointed new general secretaries for Gujarat, Karnataka and Goa. Of the 17 new office bearers, 10 are below 50 years of age, and seven are from the other backward classes (OBCs), Congress chief spokesperson Randip Singh Surjewala said.

Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha will be the new chief of Congress’s legal cell. “So many people have risen from the grassroots as members of NSUI, Youth Congress, Mahila Congress or Seva Dal and they have been given new roles in the Congress,” Surjewala added.