Why was Randeep Singh Surjewala removed in the middle of ED crisis?

The Congress high command on Thursday removed Randeep Singh Surjewala and replaced him with Jairam Ramesh as the party's general secretary in charge of the most sought-after media department.

Though the buzz of Surjewala being replaced with Ramesh has been going on for some months, what is surprising is the change happened in the middle of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi's continued questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in the National Herald case.

Gandhi has so far been questioned for 30 hours spread over three days. He will be again questioned on June 20.

The buzz about Ramesh taking over the media department grew louder during the party's three-day 'Chintan Shivir (brainstorming session)' at Udaipur in Rajasthan last month.

Ramesh had also prepared the draft of all the resolutions that were adopted at the session and became part of the Udaipur declaration.

It is also well-known that Congress president Sonia Gandhi's speeches are mostly drafted by Ramesh. He also gives intellectual inputs to the Gandhis on critical issues.  

It seems the exit of Surjewala, who had replaced Ajay Maken as the head of the media department in March 2015, got hastened by the party's failure in taking some media mileage as its top leadership is facing the government's heat over the alleged irregularities in the National Herald case.

The grand old party's repeated failures to highlight the government's alleged failure on various fronts have also been a cause of concern for the leadership.

In fact, Rahul Gandhi in his speech at Udaipur had flagged this concern by saying that the Congress had failed to communicate effectively and called for a massive reform of the party's communication strategy to reach out to the youth in a better way.

"The 21st century is about communication. And that is one area where our opponents outdo us... They have much more money and are better in communication. So, we must think about communication... completely reform our systems and communicate with the people of India, with the youngsters in a new way, he said.

That said, Surjewala had been the party's face for over seven years now and defended the Congress even in the worst times including the regular poll debacles witnessed since 2014.

Though Surjewala continues to be a general secretary and in charge of Karnataka, his clout is expected to get majorly diminished given that his interactions with the Gandhis will now decrease substantially.

It is also well-known in Congress circles that Surjewala and party general secretary in charge of organisation KC Venugopal had become bitter rivals within the organisation.

Both had started off as good friends and were considered very close to Rahul Gandhi but fell out in the past 3-4 years. The tension had become palpable of late and many described Venugopal's parting statement for Surjewala as a clear indication of the growing animosity between the two.

"Randeep Singh Surjewala has been 'thankfully' relieved from his current responsibility as General Secretary Incharge, Communication," read the statement issued by Venugopal.

Surjewala's removal could also be described as the beginning of the implementation of an important five-year term limit clause of the Udaipur declaration according to which no office-bearer will hold the post beyond five years.

Ramesh, who is known to share extra cordial relations with the print media, will have to live up to his predecessor's reputation of being available 24x7 to the electronic media. He might delegate that task to Pawan Khera.

The first impact of the change could be seen in Ramesh asking Surjewala's bete noire Bhupinder Singh Hooda's son Deepender to address a press conference at the party headquarters in Delhi on Friday. 

Besides, Ramesh also promptly put out a statement on Sonia Gandhi's health condition, which often had been kept under a veil of secrecy.

But it remains to be seen if Ramesh is able to reform the communication strategy of the Congress and help in re-establishing the grand old party's connect with the masses.