Digvijaya is head of coordination

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday appointed senior leader and former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh as the head of coordination committee for poll-bound Madhya Pradesh. Senior leader Suresh Pachouri will be in charge of election planning and strategy.

The appointments in Madhya Pradesh, where the Congress is pulling out all stops to end BJP’s uninterrupted 15-year rule, are aimed at carrying all factions of the party along after making party veteran Kamal Nath the Madhya Pradesh Congress chief last month.

Mr. Gandhi made changes in organisational posts as well, appointing former Rajya Sabha MP Rajni Patil as the party’s in-charge in Himachal Pradesh in place of Sushil Kumar Shinde. But more than two months after the party’s 84th plenary in Delhi, he is yet to announce a new Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision-making body.

Party veterans point out that this is the longest a newly elected president has taken to announce a new team, but Mr. Gandhi’s pre-occupation with the Karnataka election was cited as the reason for the delay.

On Tuesday, however, he announced some key appointments to some States such as Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Bihar.

“The party appreciates the hard work and contribution of Sushil Kumar Shinde, who will be stepping down from his responsibility as AICC general secretary in charge of Himachal Pradesh,” said a statement issued by AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot.

Two new AICC secretaries, Jitendra Baghel and Biswaranjan Mohanty, have been appointed to assist Rajeev Satav, who was earlier made the Congress in-charge in Gujarat. The Congress president also appointed two new AICC secretaries, Virender Singh Rathore and Rajesh Lilothia, for Bihar Congress.

The Congress president has appointed former Youth Congress general secretary Nadeem Javed as chairman of the party’s Minority department, replacing Khushid Ahmed Saiyed.