Sonia shuffles CWC cards

Congress President Sonia Gandhi today reconstituted the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) besides re-allocating work among its office-bearers.

Ahmed Patel and Motilal Vora continue as the political secretary to the Congress chief and the party treasurer, respectively.

There were four new faces among the 20 CWC members announced today "" Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka BK Hariprasad, former Union Minister and National Conference leader Saifuddin Soz, who joined the Congress three years back, Urmila Singh from Madhya Pradesh and V Narayansamy from Pondicherry.

Among the notable omissions from the previous CWC are former external affairs minister K Natwar Singh, UP Congress Chief Salman Khurshid and former MPs Satyavrat Chaturvedi and ML Fotedar. The last two have, however, found a place in the list of permanent invitees to the CWC. Chaturvedi has also been removed from the post of AICC general secretary (in charge of UP).

Rahul Gandhi, who was tipped to be inducted into the CWC, did not figure in the list released by AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi. However, party sources said there were still five vacancies in the CWC and Rahul was likely to figure in the next list because party workers were sure to demand his induction during the plenary session in Hyderabad later this month.

Among the biggest gainers of the reshuffle was Hariprasad, who has also been promoted from AICC secretary to general secretary in charge of Gujarat, Pondicherry, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu. V Narayansamy was another new face in the list of general secretaries.

AICC General Secretaries Ashok Gehlot, Janardan Dwivedi and Margaret Alva have apparently risen in the estimation of the high command as they have been given additional responsibilities of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and West Bengal, respectively.

The charge of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat was taken away from AICC General Secretary Mukul Wasnik who has retained only Rajasthan. He will also look after Chhattisgarh, which was earlier with Alva. Digvijay Singh, who had charge of four states, was relieved of the responsibility of Orissa, which along with Madhya Pradesh, has been given to V Narayansamy.