Ahmed Patel promoted as Cong treasurer

Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel, former political secretary to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, was on Tuesday appointed AICC Treasurer by replacing old guard Motilal Vohra. Patel takes charge of the Congress kitty at a time when the funds have dried up and the party has to face year-end Assembly elections in three crucial States and general elections in 2019.

Vohra, a Rajya Sabha member and one of the oldest Congress members, was assigned a new task as head of a newly created post of General Secretary Administration.

Simultaneously, former Union Minister Anand Sharma was appointed as chairperson of the party’s foreign affairs committee by replacing veteran Karan Singh.

A Rajya Sabha member, Patel had earlier served as treasurer from 1996 to 2000. He turned 69 on Tuesday.

Patel has been revitalising the party by emphasising on door-to-door collections and persuading grass-root Congress workers to contribute to the party funds. “He believes this will help mobilise party workers and will work as a bridge between the old timers and new generations. The party funds have taken a huge hit after the Congress lost power in 2014,” said a party insider on Patel’s new task.

Patel is one of the few Congress leaders who have worked closely with three generations of Gandhis — Indira, Rajiv, Sonia and now Rahul. He also shared a good rapport with former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and former Congress chief Sitaram Kesri but never breached the trust of the Gandhi family and thus emerged as one of most powerful leaders of the party during the 10-year-long UPA regime under Manmohan Singh.

The changes come a month after Congress chief Rahul Gandhi restructured the party set-up and dropped veterans such as Digvijaya Singh, Sushikumar Shinde, Janardhan Dwivedi and CP Joshi from the all-powerful CWC and appointed some new faces in their place. The appointment is part of Rahul’s ongoing move to infuse fresh blood in the grand old party.

Last week Rahul, who is trying to involve both the older and younger generations in the decision making, constituted a committee on Rafale deal by bringing another Congress stalwart and former Union Minister S Jaipal Reddy. A couple of weeks earlier Jaipal, who was virtually on the sideline, was appointed as a party spokesman.

While former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar was made a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision-making body of the party, Luizinho Falerio was appointed as AICC general secretary in-charge of the North-eastern States, except Assam. He replaces CP Joshi, who ceases to be the party general secretary.

“The party appreciates the hard work and contribution of Motilal Vohra as treasurer of the party,” AICC general secretary organisation Ashok Gehlot said in a statement. He also appreciated the contribution made by Karan Singh as chairperson of the AICC foreign affairs department and Joshi as general secretary of North-eastern States.