Cong removes Digvijay Singh as in-charge of Goa, Karnataka : The Tribune India

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Cong removes Digvijay Singh as in-charge of Goa, Karnataka

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Saturday relieved Digvijay Singh of the charge of Karnataka and Goa, less than a month after the party could not form a government in the coastal state despite having secured the required numbers.

Cong removes Digvijay Singh as in-charge of Goa, Karnataka

Digvijay Singh. File photo



Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 29  

The Congress on Saturday relieved Digvijay Singh of the charge of Karnataka and Goa, less than two months after the party could not form a government in the coastal state despite having secured the required numbers.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has named KC Venugopal as the in-charge of the party's affairs in Karnataka, while A Chella Kumar will take over as general secretary in-charge of Goa.

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Senior Congress leader Madhusudan Mistry has also been dismissed from the position of the party’s general secretary.

The development comes just over a month after the party lost the race to form government in Goa to the Bharatiya Janata Party despite emerging as the single largest party in the assembly elections held in February.

Several leaders within the Goa Congress blamed Singh for the debacle. The development also comes a year before Karnataka — which has an incumbent Congress government — is due to hold assembly elections.

Singh, considered close to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, had come under severe criticism for going slow in initiating talks with smaller parties to sew up a coalition and stake claim to form a Congress-led government.

The former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh will, however, continue as general secretary in-charge of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

"Congress president Sonia Gandhi has assigned the tasks of looking after Karnataka and Goa affairs to new AICC teams.

While K C Venugopal has been made general secretary incharge of Karnataka, A Chella Kumar has been made AICC incharge of Goa," party general secretary Janaradan Dwivedi said in a statement.

Singh has been one of the most vocal Congressmen advocating Rahul Gandhi's elevation as party president.

After the Goa debacle, Singh had accused Parrikar of having cheated the people of the state by "robbing the mandate". He had alleged Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, who was despatched to Panaji by BJP president Amit Shah to explore ways of forming a government, indulged in "aggressive MLA shopping" to retain power.

Parrikar had shot back and taunted Singh for Congress' failure to form government.

"My special thanks to honourable member Digvijay Singh, who happened to be in Goa but did nothing so that I could form the government," Parrikar had told Rajya Sabha while making sarcastic comments against Singh. — With PTI inputs

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