After Goa and Karnataka, Diggy loses Telangana too

Congress party has replaced senior Congress leader and AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh with another senior leader RC Khuntia as party in-charge of Telangana affairs on Tuesday. It was only in April this year that the Congress high command sacked Digvijaya from the post of AICC in-charge of Karnataka and Goa affairs, after party’s debacle in Goa despite emerging as the single largest party.

The party order issued by AICC secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said “Congress president Sonia Gandhi has approved a new AICC team to look after the party affairs in Telangana. Digvijaya Singh has been relieved of the responsibilities as the General Secretary AICC in-charge, Telangana”. Along with Khuntia, senior leader Satish Jarkiholi, a former minister from Belgaum in Karnataka, was also appointed as AICC secretary of Telangana affairs. Digvijay, however, will continue to be the in-charge of Andhra Pradesh affairs.

However, the party gave no specific reasons for his ouster. Inner party circles of the TPCC say that the senior leader was found too often with a foot in his mouth statements on issues such Telangana police instigating Muslim youth to join ISIS and recent tweets on the role of K Chandrasekhar Rao’s son K Taraka Rama Rao in the drug mafia. Especially, his comments against the Telangana police in May this year landed the party in an embarrassing situation. A case was also registered against him for his allegations on the police.

Digvijaya was appointed as AICC in charge of Andhra Pradesh affairs, replacing Ghulam Nabi Azad, in June 2013, a month before the Congress Working Committee resolved to carve out Telangana from the combined state of Andhra Pradesh.