Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday appointed Ahmed Patel, the former political secretary of Sonia Gandhi, the treasurer of the party. Patel will replace Motilal Vora who has been appointed the general secretary of administration, the party said.

Anand Sharma has been appointed chairperson of the foreign affairs department of the party, replacing Karan Singh. Former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar has been appointed a permanent invitee for Congress Working Committee and former Goa Chief Minister Luizinho Falerio has been named general secretary in charge of northeastern states, except Assam. Falerio replaced CP Joshi.

In July, seven months after taking over the reins of Congress, Rahul Gandhi reconstituted the Congress Working Committee to induct loyalists to Sonia Gandhi and younger leaders. The Congress Working Committee is the party’s highest decision-making body.

The 51-member committee includes 23 members of the CWC, 18 permanent invitees and 10 special invitees. It replaced the steering committee formed after the previous working committee was dissolved on February 16.

Apart from Gandhi, his mother and predecessor Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the 23-member CWC includes senior leaders, often referred to as the ‘Old Guard’, like Motilal Vora, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad and AK Antony.

Former general secretaries Digvijaya Singh, Janardan Dwivedi, CP Joshi, BK Hariprasad, Mohan Prakash, Mohsina Kidwai and Sushil Kumar Shinde were excluded from the working committee, besides Karan Singh, Oscar Fernandes and RK Dhawan.