In a sudden move, Congress on Wednesday appointed senior party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia as the AICC general secretary in charge of UP West while Priyanka Gandhi was handed the responsibility for UP East.

The important political development comes just couple of days after Scindia’s mysterious late-night meeting with former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at his residence which set tongues rolling in MP.

The move to appoint Scindia in UP is widely seen as a Congress ploy to distance the leader from party affairs in Madhya Pradesh where the party decided to name veteran Kamal Nath as CM.

Though seven to eight Scindia loyalists have been accommodated in the Kamal Nath cabinet, it is widely believed that it is Kamal Nath-Digvijaya Singh combo that is calling all the shots in MP now.

Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday heaped praises on his sister and Scindia, calling both of them powerful leaders of the party but the move to move Scindia to UP will mean handling of the Lok Sabha campaign in MP by Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh.

Though Gandhi claimed that Scindia was being deployed in Uttar Pradesh for just two months, it seems difficult to believe that Congress would allow Scindia to shift attention from this politically relevant state.

It should be noted that the Congress move has come at a time when CM Kamal Nath is attending World Economic Forum at Davos.

Besides, it’s equally interesting that apparently sidelined in MP BJP, former CM Chouhan too has been recently appointed as BJP national vice president despite his open declaration that he doesnot plan to go anywhere and would stay in Madhya Pradesh.

Scindia was given a rousing welcome as he reached Bhopal late Wednesday evening from Guna.