New Delhi: Preparing for Assembly polls in UP and Punjab, the Congress on Sunday brought in veterans Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kamal Nath as general secretaries incharge of the two states in a hierarchical shake-up as the party seeks to revive itself in the Hindi heartland after a string of electoral reverses.
Mr Azad, Congress’s Muslim face, takes charge of the party affairs in the key battleground state at a time when it is making attempts to woo the minorities and possibly work for an alliance with Ms Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party with which the leader has good relations.
Mr Azad, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, has been general secretary incharge of Uttar Pradesh twice before. Mr Nath will look after Haryana apart from Punjab, party general secretary Janaradan Dwivedi said. Mr Madhusudan Mistry, who was hitherto looking after UP, will be the new general secretary incharge of Central Election Committee, while Mr Shakeel Ahmed, incharge of Punjab and Haryana, has been relieved of the charge, Mr Dwivedi said.
This comes in the backdrop of the buzz in party circles about rahul Gandhi’s imminent elevation, and sends out the signal that it is a time to mobilise for battle (with UP and Punjab going to the polls next year), and not to experiment.
Mrs Gandhi has thus brought the old team back, realising that checking the BJP in UP directly or through a tactical understanding with opponents like the SP and BSP is vital at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah are leading the battle from the front against the SP, BSP and Congress.
Mr Azad had earlier handled party affairs in UP twice, and Mr Nath was general secretary in charge of Gujarat and West Bengal. The two are known for results and for being able to raise resources. Mr Nath is the seniormost member (nine terms) in the current Lok Sabha, winning since 1980 (except in the 1996 bypoll from Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh).
