Taking serious note of senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh’s ‘failure’ to cobble up any post-poll alliance to attain power in Goa despite the party emerging as the single largest in the recently held Assembly elections, the Congress high command has decided to replace Singh with Gulam Nabi Azad as the party  in-charge of Karnataka.

According to highly placed party sources, All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary Digvijay Singh, who was sent to Goa by the high command to form the government amid a hung House, will be removed as Karnataka in-charge. Karnataka will go to polls early next year.

The high command, sources said, IT is upset the way Digvijay Singh “mishandled” the whole issue that led the BJP to form the government in Goa. Two years ago, the party had bitterly lost Andhra and Telangana under Singh.

Even some of the Congress MLAs in Goa have alleged that the political managers sent by the party bosses spent most of their time merry-making in the coastal State and could not decide on the CM candidate and the alliance on time. The MLAs said that while BJP President Amit Shah effectively got his team to act, the Congress team went to Panaji and had fun.

Sources said the decision to replace Digvijay Singh would be taken once Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi returns from the US where he has gone to be with his mother Congress President Sonia Gandhi who is being treated for an ailment at a hospital.  

Party sources said that Gulam Nabi Azad will oversee the party affairs in poll-bound Karnataka and he enjoys the support of most of the Congress leaders in the State. “Azad will take all Congress leaders along with him and during his tenure as party in-charge, Congress came to power in 2013. The party wants the same performance to be repeated,” sources told Star of Mysore.

They added that the high command has taken the complaints of Congress leaders in Karnataka against Digvijay Singh seriously that he listens only to the Chief Minister and not other leaders. Along with replacing Singh, the high command is also mulling at changing the existing party General Secretaries. It may be recalled here that Congress General Secretary B.K. Hariprasad resigned recently. One more party General Secretary is Oscar   Fernandes.

The names doing the rounds for new General Secretaries are Krishna Bhyregowda, D.K. Shivakumar and Dinesh Gundu Rao.

Meanwhile, facing criticism for the way he handled the situation in Goa after elections, Digvijay Singh this morning said that his proposal for a pre-poll alliance with Goa Forward Party was “sabotaged” by his own party leaders. Putting the blame on his colleagues in the Congress, Singh said, that had the alliance with Goa Forward Party gone through, the Congress would have got a majority in the Goa and that it was unfair to now make tag him as the “villain”.