Reshuffle in AICC departments with Rahul Gandhi’s imprint

Rahul Gandhi’s aide Meenakshi Natarajan on Monday replaced senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar as chairperson of Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Raj Sangathan, marking the beginning of the exercise for long-pending reconstitution of AICC departments.

The first leg of the shake up of the AICC departments has a clear imprint of the party vice-president with a former national office bearer of NSUI and Congress Shobha Oza being appointed the President of Mahila Congress replacing Anita Verma.

Oza was also the Mahila Congress President of Madhya Pradesh earlier.

Kerala Mahila Congress chief Bindu Krishna has been made the vice-president of All India Mahila Congress.

The Scheduled Caste Department of the AICC now has a new chairman in K Raju. The post was lying vacant since 2008, when Yogendra Makwana, then heading the wing, quit Congress amid a controversy.

‘The Congress president has approved the proposal for changes in Mahila Congress, SC Department and Rajiv Gandhi Panchayati Raj Sangthan,’ party general secretary in-charge Organisation Janardan Dwivedi said in an AICC release.While Natarajan heads the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Raj Sangthan (RGPRS), Harshwardhan Sapkal has been made its vice-chairman.

Rahul Gandhi has for quite some time been laying great emphasis on empowering panchyat bodies across the countries and more so in the states ruled by Congress either alone or in alliance.