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Saturday, Jan 07, 2006

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Four new faces in CWC

K.V. Prasad

Conspicuous omission is Rahul; five vacancies remain

NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday announced her new team of Working Committee and party office-bearers. There are four new faces in the highest policy-making body but the most conspicuous omission is that of her son Rahul Gandhi.

Utilising the party "authorisation," Ms. Gandhi nominated 20 members to the CWC including B.K. Hari Prasad, MP from Karnataka, V. Narayanswamy, MP from Pondicherry, the former Madhya Pradesh Congress chief, Urmila Singh, and Saifuddin Soz from Jammu and Kashmir.

There are still five vacancies and it is understood that Ms. Gandhi could fill them after the Hyderabad AICC plenary to be held from January 21 to 23.

The former External Affairs Minister, K. Natwar Singh, who was removed from the Steering Committee after the Volcker Committee report named him in the food-for-oil scam, does not figure in the recast team. The names of the Uttar Pradesh Congress chief, Salman Khursheed, and the former Karnataka Minister, Motamma, are also not in the list.

M.L. Fotedar and Satyavrat Chaturvedi have been shifted to the 14-member permanent invitee category that has new faces in Noor Bano (former MP from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh), the former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Mukut Mithi, C.K. Jaffer Sharief and the former Karnataka Chief Minister, Veerappa Moily.

Among the new entrants in the 13-member special invitees category are Dr. Ashok Ram from Bihar, Jagmeet Singh Brar from Punjab, Dr. Parmeshwar and the former Pondicherry Chief Minister, V. Vaithilingam.

On the organisational front, Ms. Gandhi has retained Ahmed Patel in the all-powerful post of political secretary to the Congress president, while doing away with the Congress President's Office which was under general secretary Ambika Soni. Senior leader Moti Lal Vora continues as treasurer. Ms. Gandhi has preferred to continue with six of the seven general secretaries including Ms. Soni, Digvijay Singh, and Mukul Wasnik.

Four secretaries dropped

Of the 32 secretaries, there are seven new faces while four have been dropped.

The Andhra Pradesh MP, Aruna Kumar Vundavalli; Kaushalya Gotia, Gujarat's Praveen Rashtrapal, Rajasthan's Sanjay Bafna, MP tribal leader Kaushalya Gotia, Shantaram Naik and Siddharth Patel are the new entrants.

Five CWC members have been made in-charge of various States.A.K. Antony (Karnataka) and Oscar Fernandes (Northeastern States and frontal organisations) will continue in their old assignments. Satyavrat Chaturvedi, who has had a running battle with the UPCC chief, Mr. Khursheed, has been removed as general secretary and asked to look after Departments, Cells and Training.

The former Rajasthan Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot, will be the new point man in Uttar Pradesh, in addition to Delhi. Mr. Dwivedi gets additional charge of Punjab along with Haryana and organisational affairs. Noor Bano, the Muslim face from Uttar Pradsh, will be in-charge of Jharkhand, while Veerappa Moily has been given the important task of looking after the election-bound States of Kerala and Tamil Nadu as also Lakshadweep.

Mr. Hari Prasad, a secretary in the previous team, has been elevated and will now be in-charge of Gujarat, Pondicherry, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu. Mr. Narayanaswamy has been given charge of Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.

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