Eye On Polls, Congress Brings Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kamal Nath Centrestage

New Delhi:

Senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kamal Nath were appointed party general secretaries today - a move by party chief Sonia Gandhi that set in motion the organisational changes ahead of the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab next year.

Mr Azad, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, will replace Madhusudan Mistry as the in-charge of Uttar Pradesh. Mr Nath will take over from Shakeel Ahmed in Punjab and Haryana, party general secretary Janaradan Dwivedi said.

According to party sources, the decision reflects the party's wish to give preference to faces with "heart and soul in electoral politics" and not just quota. Both leaders have a track record in handling responsibility, especially elections, as they have proven that they can take along all the factions, sources said.

The appointments came as talks of Rahul Gandhi being elevated as party chief had gained ground again. But the step makes away with doubts that the party veterans will be ignored merely to give preference to youths.

Mrs Gandhi effected the changes a day after the Rajya Sabha elections which saw cross voting by some party legislators in Uttar Pradesh and the alleged deliberate faulty marking by its 14 legislators in Haryana, which resulted in the defeat of Congress-backed candidate RK Anand. There were allegations of internal sabotage at the behest of former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

For the Congress, the elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab will be crucial in view of its recent reverses in Kerala and Assam. The party has already roped in poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who successfully managed the campaigns of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 general elections and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the state polls last year.

Prashant Kishor and the general secretary in charge of UP were unable to get along and both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, after consulting Madhusudhan Mistry, decided to replace him.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress won only two seats from the Uttar Pradesh - Rae Bareli and Amethi, the pocket-boroughs of the Gandhis. Since 1989, the party had steadily lost ground in the state following the emergence of the Mandir-Masjid politics and the rise of the BSP, which took away its crucial Dalit vote base.

In Punjab, the Congress is in the opposition for the last nine years.

Mr Azad, 67, is a Gandhi family loyalist and a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. He was twice made the general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh. Mr Nath, 69, is the senior-most lawmaker in the Lok Sabha, having won from his pocket borough of Chhindwara nine times.