Congress names new team in Chhattisgarh

Out of power in Chhattisgarh for 10 years, Congress today put a new team of leaders in place in the tribal state, where its major leadership was wiped out in a Maoist attack over a year ago. Senior party leaders including former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi and his wife Renu Jogi as also AICC treasurer Motilal Vora, Mohsina Kidwai and Karuna Shukla, niece of Atal Bihari Vajpayee are among the 12 permanent invitees.

Seeking to start afresh in the state, where it failed to win assembly elections for the third consecutive period and performed miserably in the recent Lok Sabha polls, the party has brought in a number of new faces - both young and experienced - in leadership roles as it battles for a face lift to the faction-ridden state unit.

The party has appointed six new vice presidents including seven-term MLA Bodha Ram Kanwar besides 13 general secretaries among whom are tribal leader Premsai Singh and former MP Devvrat Singh besides Guru Rudra Kumar, Chhaya Verma, Girish Devangan, Atal Shirvashtava and Deepak Dubey. Besides, the party has set up a 21-member executive committee, which also has 48 secretaries, 12 permanent invitees and 30 special invitees. Besides all sitting MLAs have also been made special invitees to the Executive.