Sonia Gandhi reconstitutes CWC

Ahead of five Assembly elections, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Friday reconstituted the party?s highest policy making body, the Congress Working Committee (CWC), dropping dissidents and including new faces.

Prominent among veteran leaders dropped are Arjun Singh and Mohsina Kidwai.

G Venkatswami, who had recently targeted Gandhi, was also dropped from the new list.

The CWC member in-charge of poll bound West Bengal and Jharkhand, K Keshava Rao, has also been relieved off his post.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Union Ministers Mallikarjun Kharge, Veerapa Moily and V Narayansami, senior MP Kishore Chandra Deo and Vilasrao Deshmukh are among other who have not been included in the CWC.

Among those retained in the CWC are senior ministers Pranab Mukherjee, AK Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ambika Soni, senior leaders Motilal Vora, Digvijay Singh and Janardan Dwivedi and Rahul Gandhi.

The 19-member CWC includes Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, besides Ahmed Patel, who has been retained as the political secretary to Gandhi.

Oscar Fernandes has been included in the CWC and made a general secretary.

Home Minister P Chidambaram has been made a permanent invitee for the CWC along with Arjun Singh and Kidwai.

Birender Singh and Madhusudan Mistry have also been as new general secretaries, in addition to the incumbents.