Rajasthan may get New Congress chief this week

The Congress high command could announce a new party chief for Rajasthan within this week, highly placed sources said on Wednesday. Political circles were abuzz with the leadership zeroing in on a replacement for C P Joshi, the current state president and Union minister, after chief minister Ashok Gehlot met Sonia Gandhi and some senior party leaders, including Ahmed Patel, on Wednesday. Party sources confirmed the leaders discussed the issue of finding a new state president as well as making political appointments long overdue in the state. The speculations about Joshi being replaced gained strength after Jaipur MP Mahesh Joshi was summoned to Delhi to meet Patel. Congress MP from Udaipur Raghuveer Meena, another state leader considered close to Gehlot and a frontrunner in the race for the top post, too was camping in Delhi. There were reports about the party leadership clearing the political appointments too by the weekend. State Congress general secretary Mumtaz Masih, Seva Dal president Suresh Chaudhary, secretary Virendra Poonia, Damodar Thanvi, Randeep Dhankar, Pankaj Parashar and Anil Pareek were leading the race for political appointments in the state.