Post CWC Meet, Cong Appoints New Chief Whip & Forms Group of MPs

The Congress appointed Jairam Ramesh as the party’s chief whip in the Rajya Sabha.

The Congress on Thursday, 27 August, appointed Jairam Ramesh as the party's chief whip in the Rajya Sabha, and constituted a group of 10 MPs to deal with issues relating to the Parliament, news agency ANI reported.

This comes just days after a fiery Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in which a 'dissent' letter by 23 party leaders, calling for a restructuring in the party, became the centre of attention. After high drama, which also saw the signatories of the letter being criticised on multiple fronts, the meeting ended with the decision in favour of Sonia Gandhi continuing as the interim chief of the party for the time being.

According to sources cited by ANI on Thursday, the group of 10 MPs includes Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh, Ahmed Patel, KC Venugopal, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Gaurav Gogoi, K Suresh, Manickam Tagore and Ravneet Singh Bittu.

Gaurav Gogoi has assumed the post of deputy leader of the Congress in the Lower House, while Ravneet Singh Bittu has been appointed as the party's whip, reports said. Meanwhile, K Suresh will continue to be the chief whip in the Lok Sabha.

After the CWC meet on Monday, the Congress had said its top decision-making body had unanimously resolved to strengthen the hands of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and had made it clear that no one will permitted to undermine the party and its leadership, reported PTI.

Sonia had been authorised to effect necessary organisational changes to deal with the challenges facing the party, the resolution had reportedly said.

The whole controversy over party leadership had started when 23 Congress leaders, including former Union ministers and chief ministers, wrote to Sonia, raising critical questions about the party and demanding sweeping changes.

Signatories of the letter to Sonia had said that they have full faith in her leadership, and that of Rahul’s, and that their concerns were for the betterment of the organisation, reports had said.

(With inputs from ANI and PTI.)