In a move which looks like a ‘hit back’ on the dissenters, the senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has lost his post in a major shake-up seen to promote Rahul Gandhi’s squad.

Azad has been dropped as a general secretary though he remains a part of the Congress Working Committee.

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Ghulam Nabi Azad was one of the 23 leaders who had written to party chief over the leadership crisis. He had also openly attacked Rahul Gandhi over his alleged comment of links with BJP, a move which he withdrew soon after.

Apart from Azad, Motilal Vora, Ambika Soni and Mallikarjun Kharge have also been removed as general secretaries of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

P Chidambaram, Tariq Anwar, Randeep Surjewala, and Jitendra Singh have been named as CWC regular members.

Randeep Singh Surjewala, a Rahul Gandhi loyalist has been named general secretary in charge of Karnataka, a member of the special committee to oversee organizational changes.

Surjewala is currently the chief spokesperson of the part and he retains the post.

KC Venugopal – who has been at the front in attacks to BJP over Facebook crisis — is also a member of most committees.

Jitendra Singh, another ally of Rahul Gandhi is now in charge of Assam.

Tariq Anwar has been made general secretary in charge of Kerala, where elections are due next year.

Anwar had quit Congress along with Sharad Pawar and PA Sangma over Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin but returned before the national election last year.

Rajeev Shukla, who is considered close to Priyanka Gandhi, has been made in-charge of Himachal Pradesh.

In a major snub to Manish Tewari, who was also a signatory, former Union Minister Pawan Bansal has been made in-charge of headquarters replacing Motilal Vora who has crossed 90 years of age.

Another old hand, Karnataka leader H.K. Patil has been made in-charge of Maharashtra in place of Mallikarjun Kharge who may be the next Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

Rajni Patil has been shifted to Himachal Pradesh to Jammu and Kashmir as in-charge.

While former Union Minister Salman Khurshid has been given place in the CWC, Vivek Bansal, who is close to him, has been appointed in-charge of Haryana where party leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda was a signatory to the letter.

Other in-charges are Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for Uttar Pradesh, Oomen Chandy for Andhra Pradesh, Harish Rawat for Punjab, R.P.N. Singh for Jharkhand, Shaktisinh Gohil for Delhi and Bihar, and Dinesh Gundu Rao for Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Goa.

(With inputs from IANS)