Rahul cancels appointment of Kumar Ashish as AICC secretary

Congress president Rahul Gandhi Wednesday cancelled the appointment of Kumar Ashish as an AICC secretary attached with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the party's general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh east, a day after he was assigned the responsibility.

The JDU in Bihar as well as certain people on social media had questioned Ashish's appointment as AICC secretary after citing an old paper-leak case linked to him.

"Congress president has approved the proposal for the appointment of Shri Sachin Naik in his place as AICC Secretary," a statement released by Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal said.

Ashish was appointed to the position by the Congress president Tuesday night along with five more AICC secretaries for Uttar Pradesh -- three each attached to Priyanka Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia.

"Congress president Rahul Gandhi has cancelled the appointment of Kumar Ashish as AICC secretary attached with Priyanka Gandhi, general secretary for UP-East, with immediate effect," the party statement said, without giving any reason for the cancellation.

Priyanka Gandhi and Scindia were appointed AICC general secretary in-charge of UP east and UP west respectively in January and took charge earlier this month.

Ashish, Zubair Khan and Bajirao Khade were named on Tuesday night as AICC secretaries attached to Priyanka Gandhi.

Rana Goswami, Dhiraj Gurjar, and Rohit Chaudhary were named as AICC secretaries attached to Scindia.

Priyanka Gandhi and Scindia held a series of discussions with party workers last week in Lucknow, with at least one session lasting through the night.

The Congress is trying to revive itself in the state where it faces a challenge from the Bharatiya Janata Party, as well as from the alliance of the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.