Ahead of Assembly elections in Gujarat and Karnataka initiating changes in the Congress, AICC President Sonia Gandhi, on 29th April, removed senior leader Digvijay Singh as party's general secretary in-charge of poll- bound Karnataka and replaced him with Rahul-loyalist K C Venugopal; a Lok Sabha MP from Alappuzha in Kerala and the party's deputy whip in the Lok Sabha.  He will be assisted by four secretaries to take care of Karnataka affairs--Manickam Tagore, PC Vishnunadh, Madhu Yashki Goud and Sake Sailjanath. Gandhi also elevated AICC secretary A Chella Kumar as incharge of Goa, replacing Digvijay who was embroiled in a fiasco in government formation despite getting 17 seats while the BJP retained power after getting only 13 seats. Diggy's inaction evoked widespread criticism within the party, which had accused the BJP of creating an "artificial majority" to form its government. Amit Deshmukh will be the Secretary AICC of the state (Goa). Madhusudan Mistry ceased to be a general secretary after he was made a member of the party's Central Election Authority (CEA) for holding the organisational polls later this year. Mullapally Ramachandran will be CEA Chairman and Bhubaneshwar Kalita and Madhusudan Mistry will be its members. Gandhi also formed an Advisory Committee of CEA in which Shamsher Singh Dullo, Rajya Sabha MP, Ashk Ali Taq, former MP and Biren Singh Engti, MP, have been made members. Gandhi had earlier appointed former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot as party's general secretary incharge of Gujarat, slated to go to polls later this year, removing party leader Gurudas Kamat from the post. Some more changes are expected in other states like Himachal Pradesh which goes to polls later this year along with Gujarat.