Kamal Nath to handle Punjab, Ghulam Nabi Azad gets Uttar Pradesh

NEW DELHI: In a decision signaling strategic importance for the internal equations of the Congress leadership, Sonia Gandhi on Sunday appointed two party veterans, Ghulam Nabi Azad (67) and Kamal Nath (69), as AICC general secretaries and handed over to them the charges of election-bound Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. While Azad replaces Madhusudan Mistry, a favourite of Rahul Gandhi, as AICC pointsman in UP, Nath substitutes Shakeel Ahmad who was in charge of Punjab and Haryana.

This also marks the return of Azad and Nath to the AICC establishment where both were general secretaries in the past. Incidentally, the AICC made the announcement on a day the BJP started its national meeting in Lucknow with an eye on the UP polls. While Mistry remains a general secretary and retains his responsibility as in charge of the party’s central election committee, Shakeel has lost his AICC post.

The appointment of Azad and Nath, who started as part of the Indira Gandhi-Sanjay Gandhi team, and rose in the teams of Rajiv Gandhi, Narasimha Rao, Sitaram Kesri and Sonia Gandhi, is also a warning to a section of the party which has been impatiently pitching for dumping the seniors and packing the AICC with young leaders.

As only two appointments were announced on Sunday, party circles were wondering whether it meant the speculated large-scale AICC reshuffle would have to wait or would it come in batches. The elevation of Azad and Nath also led to a debate in Congress circles about how it would impact the role of Prashant Kishor, the party’s campaign strategist for UP and Punjab. To many, the appointments signal the high command reasserting “the role of seasoned politicians” in the party’s election preparations.

They also think Kishor would be hoping the duo would sort out one of his key problems: non-cooperation of local leaders in both states. It was no secret that Kishor’s working chemistry with both Mistry and Ahmed had not been very good.