Ashok Chavan
In a significant move, Narayan Rane and Ashok Chavan, two known detractors of chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, were on Wednesday made chairmen of the campaign and coordination committees, respectively, by the AICC in poll-bound Maharashtra.
Former Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde was named the head of the manifesto committee.
The chief minister and PCC chief Manikrao Thakre are members of all the committees. Mr Rane, who was sulking for quite some time and had resigned from the Chavan ministry last month but was made to rejoin it, heads the crucial campaign committee at a time when the chips are down for the party in the wake of the Lok Sabha elections and there have been demands to replace the Maharashtra chief minister.
The 33-member jumbo campaign committee has former ministers Anantrao Thopte, Rohidas Patil and party MPs Rajni Patil, Avinash Pandey and former MP Milind Deora.
The coordination committee has Mr Shinde, AICC general secretaries Mukul Wasnik and Gurudas Kamat, Mr Rane, Murli Deora, Janardan Chandurkar, Patangrao Kadam, Hussain Dalwai, Sharad Ranpise and Kamaltai Vyavhare as members.
The 39-member manifesto committee has Maharashtra ministers Balasaheb Thorat, Harshvardhan Patil, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Nitin Raut, party MP and Youth Congress chief Rajiv Satav and party spokesman Anant Gadgil.
The pradesh election committee is headed by the PCC chief, which has the chief minister as also senior leaders Mr Shinde, Mr Wasnik, Mr Kamat, Mr Ashok Chavan, Mr Rane, Vilas Muttemwar Satav and Priya Dutt among members.
The committee on media and publicity is headed by Harshvardhan Patil and its members include former Union minister Rajiv Shukla, Sanjay Nirupam, Amit Deshmukh, minister of state for home in the state Satej Patil. Sanjay Dutt, Sachin Sawant and Ashish Kulkarni are coordinators of this committee.