Congress reshuffle begins, new chiefs in five states

* No announcement on Punjab chief’s replacement

New Delhi, The much awaited reshuffle of the Congress Party began on Monday with the appointment of new presidents in five states, including Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Telangana.
While Ajay Makan, hitherto Congress general secretary incharge of Communication, has been named the Delhi Pradesh Congress president replacing Arvinder Lovely, former minister in Jammu and Kashmir GA Mir has been appointed the J&K Congress chief replacing Saifuddin Soz.
In Maharashtra, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has appointed former state CM Ashok Chavan as the new state chief and in Gujarat, the party has named former minister Bharatsinh Solanki as the new president of the state unit.
Telangana has got a president Uttam Reddy along with one working president, the state being new.
No announcement has yet been made on Punjab chief Partap Bajwa’s replacement though ex-state’s minister Lal Singh’s name has been doing the rounds as a possible replacement of Bajwa.
Sources in Congress said the party had to do an extremely tight rope walk in Punjab where former state CM Capt Amarinder Singh has been staking a claim on state presidency.
The party is hoping to appoint as Punjab state chief someone who can take all warring factions along. The party also doesn’t want to annoy Capt who led the rebellion against Bajwa and who is acknowledged as the tallest state leader.
Sources said Punjab re-organisation continued to be a mystery with slow decision making marking the process.
“The reason why the party is taking time in announcing Punjab changes is that it wants to do a thorough job, which will satisfy everyone considering Punjab is one state both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi believe they can win,” a leader said.