Cong appoints 2 new PCC chiefs

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday appointed Jayadev Jena and Sukhdeo Bhagat as Orissa and Jharkhand PCC presidents, respectively.
While the Jharkhand Assembly polls are expected either next month or would be held in November-December this year with the Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi, Orissa Assembly elections could be held with the Lok Sabha elections next year.
The Congress has been out of power in these states for long.
Mr Jena (62) was an AICC secretary and a former PCC chief of Orissa while Mr Bhagat (48) had joined the Congress party after a stint in the state administrative services and became an MLA in 2005.
Mr Jena replaces incumbent Mr Niranjan Patnaik and the tribal leader, Mr Bhagat, takes over from Mr Pradip Kumar Balmuchu, the MP.
Mr Jena belongs to scheduled caste community and is considered to be a grassroots politician with clean image. Mr Bhagat, a post-graduate from Delhi University, belongs to Oraon community of the tribals.
In 2009, when there was speculation of the Congress forming a government in the state in alliance, there was a demand to project Mr Bhagat as CM candidate on the argument that the state did not have any chief minister from among Oraons, one of the four major tribes in Jharkhand.
Among the past chief ministers in the state Madhu Koda belonged to Ho tribe, Mr Babulal Marandi and Mr Shibu Soren to Santhali and Mr Arjun Munda to Munda tribe.
The Congress party has appointed new PCC chiefs in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab and the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee.
If insiders are to be believed PCC presidents in Gujarat, Goa and Maharashtra are expected to replaced for different reasons.