Congress removes Digvijaya as party in charge of Goa, K'taka

Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh was on Saturday removed as party's general secretary in-charge of poll-bound Karnataka and Goa after its fiasco in government formation in the coastal state.

Initiating a reshuffle within the party, Congress president Sonia Gandhi appointed K C Venugopal as its general secretary in-charge for Karnataka along with four secretaries.

She also elevated Congress secretary A Chella Kumar as incharge of Goa, replacing Singh.

As Congress's Goa unit in-charge, Singh had failed to form a government there despite the party winning 17 out of the total 40 seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party retained power after getting only 13 seats.

The inaction on the part of Singh evoked widespread criticism within the party, which accused the BJP of creating "artificial majority" to form its government.

Digvijay Singh had, on March 13, accused the BJP for wooing smaller parties and independents to form the government and keep the Congress away from power in Goa.

"Money power has won over people's power. I apologise to the people of Goa as we couldn't muster the support to form the government," Singh had tweeted.

He had said that the Congress' struggle against communal forces and money power politics in Goa shall, however, continue.

With inputs from agencies