New Delhi, September 24: Rahul Gandhi was today appointed Congress General Secretary in a reshuffle of the party hierarchy, which saw induction of a host of young faces and three junior Ministers into the AICC, triggering speculation of changes in the Union Council of Ministers.

In changes long awaited by partymen, Congress President Sonia Gandhi made her 37-year-old son also a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and gave him charge of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) and the Youth Congress.

Apart from Gandhi, who follows in the footsteps of his father late Rajiv Gandhi, who became the General Secretary in the 80s after his election as MP, party veteran Mohsina Kidwai, Minister of State in the PMO Prithviraj Chavan and senior MP V Kishore Chandra Deo have also been brought in as General Secretaries.

Ahmed Patel continues as Political Secretary to the Congress President.

In the biggest ever team in the AICC, Gandhi also created a new cell called 'Group to look into future challenges' that has Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh as its convenor and comprises some young faces as its members, including Rahul, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sandeep Dikshit and Sachin Pilot.

Late Sunil RPT Sunil Dutt's daughter Priya Dutt, late Jitendra Prasad's son Jitin Prasad and Rajiv Shukla, all MPs have been made Secretaries.

Four new state Presidents have been appointed, including Rita Bahuguna, daughter of the late H N Bahuguna, replacing Salman Khursheed.

In Punjab, former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal replacing Shamsher Singh Dullo, while in Rajasthan C P Joshi comes in place of B D Kalla and in Uttarakhand Yashpal Arya takes over from Harish Rawat.

The ministers who have been given organisational responsibility would, as of now, continue with their ministerial responsibilities, AICC Spokesperson Janardhan Dwiwedi said.

While Dwivedi was not forthcoming on whether the inclusion of ministers into the secretariat indicated a reshuffle of the Union Cabinet, sources said changes in the ministerial portfolios was on the cards and could see induction of some young faces in the government.

"The changes are aimed at reorganising the party and work distribution and have been carried out with the hope that people will work with greater enthusiasm," Dwivedi said.

To a question on whether the reshuffle in the AICC secretariat was undertaken in view of possibility of mid-term polls, Dwivedi said it was long overdue.

Moily has been made chairman of the Department of Policy Planning and Coordination, which will have Ramesh as the Secretary.

Kapil Sibal, Arjun Sengupta, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Milind Deora, another of the young brigade of MPs, have also been made members of the committee.

The Publicity and Publication Committee has Digvijay Singh as its in-charge and while Wasnik will be its convener, Rahul comes in as one of the members.

The Training Department will be headed by Dwivedi and it will have D P Ray as its secretary.

The 15-member Manifesto Committee will be headed by Pranab Mukherjee and will have leaders like Arjun Singh, Moily, Digvijay Singh, P Chidambaram, Alva, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Salman Khurshid and Ramesh.

In addition to the new state unit presidents, Punjab and Rajasthan will have Mohinder Singh Kaypee and Parasram Mordia respectively as working presidents.

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