Vilas Muttemwar made Congress General Secretary

NEW DELHI: Vilas Muttemwar, who today missed the bus to the Union Cabinet, was made Congress General Secretary while Arun Yadav was named party Secretary after he was dropped from the Ministry.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi made the appointments close on the heels of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reshuffling his Council of Ministers.

62-year old Muttemwar, a Congress leader from Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, is a Lok Sabha member from Nagpur and was a prominent ministerial hopeful.

There has been talk that BJP President Nitin Gadkari could contest the next Lok Sabha polls from Nagpur.

Muttemwar was a Minister of State in the UPA-I holding independent charge of New and Renewable Energy.

Yadav, who was Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing, is a Lok Sabha member from Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh.

The announcement was made by AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi.

With the appointment of Muttemwar, the Congress will have ten General Secretaries. The party has more than 30 secretaries.