Cong Names Subhash Chopra Chief of Its Delhi Unit, Kirti Azad Chairman of Campaign Committee

New Delhi: The Congress party on Wednesday named Subhash Chopra as the president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC).

The party made the announcement in a statement, saying that Congress president Sonia Gandhi has also named Kirti Azad as chairman of the campaign committee of the DPCC.

The post of the Delhi Congress president has been vacant since Sheila Dixit's death in July.

It is a second stint for Chopra, who turned 72 on Wednesday, as the DPCC president, a post he held from 1998 to June 2003. The appointment comes nearly three months after the demise of incumbent Sheila Dikshit.

Chopra is a three-time MLA from Kalkaji. He was first elected as a member of Delhi assembly in 1998 and retained his seat in 2003 and 2008. He was Speaker of the Delhi assembly earlier from June 2003 to December 2003.

Chopra has the uphill task of bringing the Congress back to power in Delhi, where it failed to open its account in the last assembly polls and two consecutive Lok Sabha elections. He started his career as a student leader and was elected as president of Delhi University Students Union from 1970 to 71.

Azad, whose name was earlier doing the rounds for the post of DPCC chief, was appointed as chairman of the campaign committee of Delhi Congress.

A former cricketer and son of former Bihar chief minister Bhagwat Jha Azad, he returned to the Delhi Congress after a gap of almost two decades. He was earlier an MLA from Gole market in 1993, but lost the next election and then went over to contest from Dharbhaga in Bihar

In another statement, the party named M Okendro as president of the Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee, who will replace Gaikhangam.