Congress chooses 17 state chiefs

All India Congress Committee general secretary Digvijay Singh was on Saturday given charge of Bihar in place of Harikesh Bahadur as Congress announced 17 state chiefs.

The party retained Salman Khurshid in Uttar Pradesh, Prabha Rao in Maharashtra and Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed in Jammu and Kashmir.

Party General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi made the announcements.

Others elected were Keshav Rao (Andhra Pradesh), Bhubaneshwar Kalita (Assam), Ravi Naik (Goa), O L Nongtudu (Meghalaya), Lalthanhawla (Mizoram), Hoketo Sumi (Nagaland), Jaidev Jena (Orissa), Nar Bahadur Bhandari (Sikkim), Kuldeep Sharma (Andaman & Nicobar), Ketan Patel (Daman & Diu), Moosa Manikfar Kallikagothi (Lakshdweep) and Gurudas Kamat (Mumbai Regional Congress Committee).

Party president Sonia Gandhi nominated Mukut Mithi (Arunachal Pradesh), Peerzada Sayeed (Jammu and Kashmir), Prabha Rau (Maharashtra), B D Kalla (Rajasthan) and Salman Khurshid (Uttar Pradesh).

The Pradesh Congress Committees of these five states had authorised her to take a decision.