The Congress had announced on Friday that Rajasthan Revenue Minister Harish Chaudhary shall be replacing Harish Rawat as the in-charge for the party’s Punjab unit.
“Shri Harish Rawat is being relieved from his current responsibility as AICC [All India Congress Committee] In-Charge of Punjab and Chandigarh,” the party said in the statement. “He shall continue as member of CWC [Congress Working Committee].”
He was being considered for the post since September. At that time, Chaudhary had said that he may take any opportunity offered by the Congress.
Rawat had worked as the Punjab in-charge for Congress when the party had been hit with a political crisis with just a few months to go for Assembly polls.
Congress leader Amarinder Singh had stepped down as chief minister of Punjab on September 18 after his differences with state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu had become public. Also, Charanjit Singh Channi was sworn in as Punjab’s chief minister on September 20.
Sidhu quit as the party’s state unit chief On September 28, as he was reportedly disappointed by the changes introduced by Channi in the Punjab Cabinet.
Rawat has insisted that Sidhu shall continue as the Punjab Congress chief.
The former state Congress in-charge has been critical of Singh. On Thursday, Rawat had said that Singh seemed to have “killed the secular Amarinder within himself” by considering to ally with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Singh had also replied saying that Congress should not talk about secularism as it had been inducting Sidhu into party who was “with BJP for 14 years”.
