Congress gets new in-charges for Bihar, Uttarakhand

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday appointed Shaktisinh Gohil as the party in-charge of Bihar in place of C.P. Joshi, who continues to be in charge of the northeastern States and West Bengal. Mr. Gandhi also appointed Anugrah Narayan Singh as the party in-charge of Uttarakhand, replacing senior leader Ambika Soni.

“The party appreciates the hard work and contribution of C.P. Joshi, who is relieved from the charge of general secretary in-charge of Bihar,” read a statement issued by Congress general secretary Ashok Gehlot.

Though the decision to relieve Mr. Joshi is part of the Congress president’s efforts to bring in new faces and young leaders, the Congress leader from Rajasthan was blamed in some quarters for his poor handling of the situation that led to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar politically parting ways with the Congress and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD.

Former Congress chief in Bihar, Ashok Choudhury, eventually joined Janata Dal (United) and had blamed Mr Joshi.

In the recently-concluded elections in Nagaland and Tripura, where the Congress drew a blank, the state level leaders had blamed Mr. Joshi for the debacle. Congress’ Nagaland chief K. Therie had told The Hindu that he (Mr Joshi) never bothered to campaign in the state.

“We are morally responsible and we have our own share, but as the general secretary in-charge, Mr. Joshi should own moral responsibility. He should have, at least, campaigned in Nagaland and Tripura,” Mr. Therie had said on the day election results came out.

Mr. Joshi had also come in for criticism for his handling of Manipur last year where the Congress was forced to sit in the Opposition despite emerging as the single largest party.

The new appointments are part of a gradual restructuring of the party after the Congress Plenary last month. Mr. Gandhi has appointed many young leaders to key positions after taking over the party chief last December.