Ahmed Patel appointed Congress Treasurer
New Delhi, Aug 21 : Ahmed Patel, a long-time political aide of Sonia Gandhi, was on Tuesday appointed as Congress Treasurer and Anand Sharma as Chairperson of its Foreign Affairs Department.
Patel, who was Political Secretary to Sonia Gandhi for 16 years when she was the Congress President, replaces Motilal Vora who was the Treasurer for almost 17 years.
Former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar was made a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee while former Goa Congress chief Luizinho Falerio was appointed General Secretary incharge of the party affairs in the northeast states.
A former Union Minister, Sharma replaces party veteran Karan Singh.
The new appointments were made by Congress President Rahul Gandhi.
A three-time Lok Sabha MP from Gujarat, Patel is now into his fifth term in the Rajya Sabha. He has been a party General Secretary from October 1996 to July 2000.
Patel, among other things, had worked for effective coordination between the party and the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government from 2004 to 2014.
Faleiro replaces C.P. Joshi, who has now been divested of all the states he was made incharge of, including Assam and Bihar.
The party had lost elections in Assam and several northeastern states when Joshi was party incharge. He belongs to Rajasthan which goes to the Assembly polls in 2018.
Falerio has his task cut out as Mizoram will go to Assembly polls this year. The Congress also faces the challenge of containing the BJP in the region in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
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Bengaluru: Special court grants bail to MLA Byrathi Basavaraj in murder case
Bengaluru: A special court in Bengaluru on Thursday granted bail to BJP MLA Byrathi Basavaraj in connection with the murder of Shivaprakash alias Bikla Shiva, a realtor and rowdy-sheeter who was killed on July 15, 2025, The Hindu reported.
Santhosh Gajanan Bhat, judge of the special court of sessions for criminal cases against former and present MLAs and MPs, passed the order while allowing Basavaraj’s bail petition.
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Basavaraj was arrested on February 12, 2026, and later remanded to judicial custody after undergoing a week-long interrogation in police custody. In the case, he has been arraigned as accused number-5 among the 20 accused.
While granting bail, the court directed the MLA not to threaten or tamper with prosecution witnesses and and not to directly or indirectly make an attempt to influence any of the witness.
Among the other conditions are that he has to appear before the investigating officer as and when required and has to cooperate for the probe, and not leave the court’s jurisdiction without prior written permission.
