New Delhi: The Congress has appointed Union Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Jairam Ramesh as the convener of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Jairam Ramesh will oversee the strategy of the party in the elections.
The IIT Bomay alumnus, Jairam Ramesh was the in charge of Congress's election 'war' room in 2004 and 2009. He is credited with the party's pro-poor and common people centric campaigns on both occasions.
Some say Congress's slogan 'Congress ka haath, aam aadmi ke saath' is his creation. He is very close to Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi. The mercurial Jairam Ramesh is a tech savvy politician. He is expected to give more importance to social media and internet based campaigns to counter BJP's hi-tech campaign led by its Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
The 59 years old Jairam Ramesh is a Kannadiga from the Coffee bowl of India, Chikmagalur in Karnataka. After the IIT Bombay, he went to Carnegie Mellon University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA.
After a brief stint with the World Bank, he returned to India to work with the central government. He has held various important positions in the ministry of finance and commerce in the 1980s and 1990s. He was also a part of the Planning Commission of India in the 1990s.
He was the deputy chairman of Karnataka state planning board during SM Krishna's tenure as the Chief Minister. He was also a national secretary of the Congress party. He is a Rajya Sabha member from Andhra Pradesh for the second consecutive term.
He was minister of state commerce, power and also held the independent charge of forest and environment before being elevated as cabinet minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj.
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