THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Tariq Anwar has been removed from his post as in-charge of Kerala. He makes way for Deepa Dasmunshi. Congress Working Committee member Ramesh Chennithala has been entrusted with the charge of Maharashtra. K C Venugopal will continue to hold the crucial post of AICC general secretary (organisation). These decisions were reached at the CWC meeting held in New Delhi on Friday.
A Rajya Sabha MP, Tariq Anwar was entrusted with overseeing the party’s affairs in Kerala in September 2020. The soft-spoken Tariq was liked by all sections of the Congress state leadership. But he also runs into some rough weather. On one such occasion, he asserted that senior MPs, including K Muraleedharan, should maintain party decorum and discipline.
Deepa’s husband was the late Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, a former Union minister. The 63-year-old CWC member is the fourth woman to hold the charge of the state after Margaret Alva, Mohsina Kidwai and Sheila Dixit. Apart from Kerala, Deepa will hold the charge of Lakshadweep and an additional charge of Telangana.
For Chennithala, who had to be content with the permanent invitee slot in the CWC, the highest body of the party, the independent charge of Maharashtra will come as a consolation. He is, however, not new to Maharashtra, where he has spent several stints as an election observer. Chennithala, who speaks chaste Hindi, is also quite popular in the party’s corridors of power there.
Venugopal was expected to continue in his organisational post, with the general elections just months away.