Message to letter writers as Sonia Gandhi makes key party appointments

News Network

August 28, 2020

New Delhi, Aug 28: In a clear message to those who recently wrote a dissent letter challenging her leadership, Congress president Sonia Gandhi Thursday formed a five-member panel in Rajya Sabha including her confidants and elevating two young MPs to senior positions in Lok Sabha.

Ahmed Patel, KC Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh will be part of the Rajya Sabha Committee, which will also include Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and party's deputy leader Anand Sharma.

Azad and Sharma are signatories to the letter that demanded an overhaul of the Congress party and a new "full-time and visible" party president. They were attacked by party leaders in the Congress Working Committee meeting on Monday, where some even sought action against them.

Ramesh has also been appointed the chief whip in Rajya Sabha, a post that fell vacant after Bhubaneswar Kalita quit the party and joined the BJP.

Former minister and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal, who was also a signatory to the letter, did not find a place in the strategy committee.

The group will take a call on the party's floor strategy with sources saying the idea is to strengthen floor management.

In the Lok Sabha, Gandhi elevated party MP from Assam Gaurav Gogoi and made him the deputy leader of Congress, while Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu was made the party's whip.

The two, along with leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, chief whip K Suresh and another whip Manickam Tagore would form a five-member Committee of floor leaders in the lower house.

It is a move by the Congress to strengthen its team of floor leaders in the Lower House, party leaders said, adding it is also a message to dissenters like Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari in Lok Sabha and Azad and Sharma in the upper house.

Bittu, a three-time MP from Punjab who has been entrusted with the responsibility as the Congress whip in the Lok Sabha, trumps his Punjab colleague Tewari, also a three-time MP.

Currently, Bittu represents Ludhiana, which had earlier elected Tewari, who now is MP from Anandpur Sahib. Bittu had won from Anandpur Sahib in 2009.

Party leaders said Tewari and Tharoor were aspiring for positions in Lok Sabha.

The opposition party did not have a deputy leader in Lok Sabha -- the last was in the previous Lok Sabha when Amarinder Singh was on the post before he became the chief minister of Punjab.

The appointments came ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, which is likely to commence from September 14.

Gogoi hails from Assam, where Assembly polls are due early next year. The MP from the Kaliabor Lok Sabha constituency, he was the party's whip in the House till now and has been elevated.

Gogoi is the son of former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

23 Israel-linked terrorists killed, 46 captured by Iran army

News Network

November 15,2024

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has killed or captured 69 terrorists linked to the Israeli spy agency Mossad during a major counterterrorism drill in the country's southeast, its spokesman says.

General Ahmad Shafaei, the spokesman for the “Martyrs of Security” drill, said Friday that a total of 23 terrorists have been killed and another 46 arrested in various clean-up operations ever since the IRGC Ground Force launched it in the Sistan and Baluchestan province on November 1.

Seven terrorists have also turned themselves in during the period.

“The undeniable fact about terrorists is that they rely on arrogant powers, particularly the intelligence service of the wicked and vicious Zionist regime," Shafaei said.

“Unfortunately, weapons and munitions at terrorists’ disposal are among the most sophisticated ones in the world. This accounts for their heavy dependence.”

The official stated that several members of the disbanded terror teams were non-Iranian nationals, who had been hired by foreign intelligence agencies to carry out acts of sabotage and terror inside Iran.

In a most recent operation, six terrorists were arrested and four others were eliminated, three of whom were non-Iranians, he added.

On October 26, ten members of Iran's law enforcement forces were killed in a terrorist attack in the Gohar Kuh district of Taftan in the Sistan and Baluchestan province.

The so-called Jaish al-Adl terrorist group claimed responsibility for the assault, which was one of the deadliest in the province in recent months.

The group has carried out numerous terrorist attacks in Iran, primarily in Sistan and Baluchestan.

Its tactics include the abduction of border guards as well as targeting civilians and police stations within the province to incite chaos and disorder.

In January, Iran launched a military operation during which the headquarters of the Pakistan-based terrorist group was targeted in missile strikes, destroying its infrastructure.

Comments