Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday appointed senior party leader Dinesh Gundu Rao the head of its Karnataka unit. Easwar Khandre was appointed the working president.

The incumbent president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, G Parameshwara, is stepping down over a month after he took over as the deputy chief minister of the state, the party said. Parameshwara was the chief of the Karnataka unit for eight years.

Rao, a five-time MLA from Gandhinagar constituency in Bengaluru, was the working president in charge of South Karnataka till now.

“I received a call from the high command this afternoon to confirm the appointment,” Rao told The New Indian Express.