Accepting the request of former Chief Minister and head of election campaign committee of Congress party Harish Rawat, the Congress high command has relieved him of the responsibility of All India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge of Punjab and Chandigarh. In a letter the General Secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal said that Harish Chauhdary would be the AICC general secretary in charge of Punjab and Chandigarh. Rawat however would continue to remain a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the apex decision making committee of Congress party.

It is pertinent to mention here that Rawat was consistently requesting the Congress high command to relieve him from the responsibility of Punjab so that he could focus more on his home state Uttarakhand. Rawat was given charge of the important state of Punjab in September last year. In Punjab, Rawat tried his best to control the factionalism but he could not succeed. The Congress first appointed Navjot Singh Siddhu as Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief and later removed Captain Amarinder Singh from the post of chief minister. Since the assembly elections in both Punjab and Uttarakhand are slated to be held together in early 2022, Rawat was requesting Congress President Sonia Gandhi to relieve him from the charge of Punjab. After the recent rain triggered disaster in Uttarakhand, Rawat had again requested the party high command which was accepted on Friday.

Expressing happiness at the decision of Congress high command, the vice president of Uttarakhand Congress Dhirendra Pratap said since Rawat would devote his full time in Uttarakhand now which is nothing but an alarm bell for the ruling BJP.