Congress party president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday replaced office bearers in charge of party units in Goa and Karnataka.

A statement issued by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) member Janardhan Dwivedi, it was announced that A. Chella Kumar has been made in-charge of Congress matters in Goa, replacing veteran leader Digvijaya Singh. It was also announced that Amit Deshmukh has been appointed as the Secretary, AICC in the state.

In Karnataka, K C Venugopal has been made General Secretary in charge of Congress party affairs. He will be assisted by four AICC secretaries namely Manickam Tagore, P.C. Vishnunadh, Madhu Yashki Goud and Dr. Sake Sailjanath.

Digvijaya Singh was blamed for the party’s failure to form a government in Goa and was ribbed by CM Manohar Parrikar who had ‘thanked’ him for failing to cobble together a majority in Goa despite the Congress party winning the maximum number of assembly seats.

Parrikar had said in Rajya Sabha: “Of course, I thanked Digvijaya for letting us form the government. It is because of his incompetence that we formed the government here. He kept roaming around and we formed the government in 48 hours. His own MLA did not have faith in him while we built consensus with the regional parties," Parrikar told the Rajya Sabha.

Digvijaya, who was in-charge of the Congress affairs in Goa, had earlier said the constitutional norms were not followed by Governor Mridula Sinha, adding that the Congress despite being the single largest party was not invited to form the government in the state.

Earlier on March 16, former defence minister Parrikar established victory in the Goa Assembly as 22 MLAs stood in his support. 16 MLAs opposed Parrikar's candidature as the Chief Minister, while one MLA was absent.

The Supreme Court had ordered a floor test as the Congress challenged his appointment, citing that the Goa Governor did not follow the procedure as dictated by the Constitution.

Despite the BJP ending up second behind the Congress in a split mandate, Parrikar had claimed the support of 22 legislators, two more than the half-way mark in the 40-member Assembly.

The Congress won 17 seats but was not able to prove majority.