Cong appoints Rameshwar Oraon as new J'khand unit chief, TS Singh Deo is screening panel chief

The Congress on Monday appointed Rameshwar Oraon as the president of the Jharkhand unit and named five working presidents for the state.

The party also appointed Chhattisgarh minister TS Singh Deo as the chairman of the screening committee for selection of candidates for Assembly election.

The appointments come ahead of the Assembly election in Jharkhand, which is slated for later this year.

"Congress president has appointed Rameshwar Oraon as president of Jharkhand PCC (Pradesh Congress Committee)," a communication from AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has also appointed Keshav Mahto Kamlesh, Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Thakur, Manas Sinha and Sanjay Paswan as working presidents of the Jharkhand unit.

The Congress president has also set up a screening committee for Jharkhand with Singh Deo as the chairman and Kodikunnil Suresh, party MP and Saleem Ahmed, AICC Secretary, as members.

Jharkhand in-charge of Congress RPN Singh, new PCC chief Rameshwar Oraon, and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Alamgir Alam, are also members of the screening committee.

The appointment of a new president comes after Ajoy Kumar resigned from the post taking moral responsibility of the Congress's defeat in Jharkhand in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

He has also accused the local Congress leadership of corruption and keeping their personal interests above the party.