Agartala, Dec 23, 2023, Special Correspondent

Agartala, Dec 23: Months after his appointment as permanent invitee of the Congress Working Committee, Girish Chodankar was on Saturday named incharge of Tripura.

Chodankar, who is former Goa Congress president and had an earlier stint as AICC secretary, will also look after the party's affairs in three other northeastern states of Sikkim, Manipur and Nagaland.

He replaces AICC Tripura incharge Dr Ajoy Kumar, who has been given the charge of Odisha, with an additional charge of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

The Congress has fought the state Assembly elections and bye-elections in Tripura as an ally of CPI(M)-led left front. The grand old party faced main electoral challenge from regional party TIPRA, which harmed their electoral fortunes to a great extent.

In a major organisational rejig ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress appointed Avinash Pande as the general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, replacing Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, while Sachin Pilot was made the general secretary in-charge of Chhattisgarh.

Pande was earlier AICC in-charge of Jharkhand.

Priyanka Gandhi will now be a general secretary "without any assigned portfolio", according to a statement issued by the party.

Pilot, along with GA Mir, Dipak Babaria, and Deepa Dasmunshi, was appointed as general secretaries, while Tariq Anwar was dropped from the list.

The appointments come two days after a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, the party's highest decision-making body, which was chaired by party president Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by senior leaders, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

Pilot, a former deputy chief minister of Rajasthan, replaces Kumari Selja, who has now been given the role of general secretary in-charge of Uttarakhand, the statement said. Congress leader Mir is the general secretary in-charge of Jharkhand with the additional charge of West Bengal, it said, adding Dasmunshi has been given the charge of Kerala and Lakshadweep with additional charge of Telangana.

Ajay Maken continues to be the treasurer, while Milind Deora and Vijay Inder Singla have been made joint treasurers.

Senior leaders Jairam Ramesh, K C Venugopal, Mukul Wasnik, and Randeep Singh Surjewala remain the general secretaries in-charge of communication, organisation, Gujarat, and Karnataka, respectively.

Jitendra Singh, who is the general secretary in-charge of Assam, was given the additional charge of Madhya Pradesh, while Babaria was elevated as a general secretary and given the charge of Delhi, along with additional charge of Haryana, the statement said, adding that the appointments will come into effect immediately.