Cong appoints Anil Chaudhary DPCC president, DK Shivakumar made chief of Karnataka unit

In key organisational changes, the Congress on Wednesday appointed young leader Anil Chaudhary as its Delhi unit chief and D K Shivakumar, known to be the party's chief troubleshooter, as the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president. Congress president Sonia Gandhi named Chaudhary as the president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) and Abhishek Dutt, Shivani Chopra, Jaikishan, Mudit Agarwal and Ali Hassan its vice-presidents, a party statement said.

Subhash Chopra had resigned as the Delhi Congress chief in February, taking moral responsibility for the party's debacle in the Assembly polls held last month. The Congress drew a blank for the second time in a row in the Delhi Assembly polls and its vote share reduced from 9.7 per cent in 2015 to 4.27 per cent this time.

Chaudhary, in his 40s, is a former MLA from Patparganj, former councillor, former president of the Delhi Youth Congress and ex-chief of the Delhi NSUI. He thanked party chief Sonia Gandhi for giving him the important responsibility and assured that he would strengthen the Congress in Delhi.

Among the vice-presidents, three are children of senior Delhi Congress leaders -- Shivani Chopra is daughter of Subhash Chopra, Mudit Agarwal is J P Agarwal's son and Ali Hassan is Hasan Ahmed's son. In Karnataka, 57-year-old Shivakumar replaced Dinesh Gundu Rao as the KPCC chief.

Eashwar Khandre, Satish Jharkiholi and Saleem Ahammed have been named working presidents of the state unit by the Congress chief, a party statement said. "I thank Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, and senior party leaders for placing their trust in me and appointing me as KPCC President. I will work unitedly with all leaders as a karyakarta to serve the people of Karnataka and bring Congress back to power in the state," Shivakumar tweeted.

Former chief minister Siddaramaiah will continue to be the Chief of Legislature Party and the Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly. While Ajay Singh was appointed as the chief whip in the Karnataka Assembly, M Narayanaswamy will be the party's chief whip in the Legislative Council.

Siddaramaiah had stepped down as the CLP leader while Dinesh Gundu Rao had resigned as state Congress president on December 9 after the party's poor performance in the assembly bypolls at 15 places. While the ruling BJP won 12 seats, the Congress could secure only two seats -- Hunasuru and Shivajinagar. An independent candidate won from Hoskote.

The bypolls were necessitated due to the disqualification of 17 MLAs which brought down the coalition government of Congress and the JD(S). The BJP's thumping victory in the bypolls helped the saffron party gain majority in the Karnataka assembly with 117 seats minus the speaker.

Last month, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad had held discussions with top party leaders in Karnataka to select the CLP leader and new state Congress president. Shivakumar is under probe by the income tax department and the Enforcement Directorate in cases of alleged tax evasion and money laundering. He is currently out on bail.

Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga leader, is known as the crisis manager of the Congress and has been roped in time and again to keep the party's flock together. A six-time MLA, Shivakumar had hosted Congress legislators from Gujarat in Bengaluru in 2017 to ensure the victory of AICC leader Ahmed Patel in Rajya Sabha elections.

He was a key link in the Congress-JDS coalition and had made hectic attempts to prevent the collapse of the H D Kumaraswamy-led government last year after a section of the then ruling MLAs revolted..