Loyalist to get key posts in Congress rejig later this month

After a spate of resignations from the party, Congress Interim President Sonia Gandhi may announce her new team during Navratra later this month. The party may be restructured in the due course.

"The party is looking for ideologically committed workers and leaders. Loyalty to the party and experience in handling party organisation will be the prime eligibilities in selecting people to key posts," said a senior Congress leader.

There has been an exodus from the Congress after the Lok Sabha polls. In Maharashtra, Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil resigned to join Devendra Fadnavis government.

In Goa, its 10 MLAs resigned and joined the BJP, while in Karnataka, the JD-S-Congress coalition government fell because of the exodus of their MLAs to the BJP.

Congress' Rajya Sabha MPs Bhubneswar Kalita and Sanjay Singh have also resigned as have former Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna and Rita Bahuguna, who too joined the saffron party.

Upset over the exodus, Sonia Gandhi had, at a September 12 meeting, termed the people leaving the party as "opportunistic".

She has been meeting Congress district presidents, former state presidents as well as former MPs to arrive at any decision for names for new Pradesh Congress Committees (PCC) chiefs in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi.

Before the appointment of the Jharkhand PCC (Pradesh Congress Committee) chief, she met all the stake holders in the state. In Haryana, she gave preference to Kumari Selja, despite Bhupinder Singh Hudda threatening to leave the party.

She has also appointed loyalist Meira Kumar's son Anshul Meera Kumar as party's new national spokesperson. A source said most states will soon see new PCC chief soon.

( With inputs from IANS )