New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday appointed Nadeem Javed, a 40-year-old dynamic leader from Uttar Pradesh, as chairman of the AICC's minorities department in a major signal of a generational shift after the young Sushmita Dev was given charge of the Mahila Congress.

Javed's appointment is a bold decision as the party's minorities department is expected to play an important role in the 2019 general election.

The outgoing chief, Khurshid Ahmed Saiyad, had failed to perform and the department has been almost defunct. Saiyad worked in the party's labour wing, Intuc, but allegedly had no knowledge of the Congress organisation.

Javed, who has risen from the grassroots, starting with the party's student wing NSUI and the Youth Congress, is a former MLA from Uttar Pradesh. A powerful orator with sound organisational skills, he is expected to mobilise the support of minorities for the Congress.

Unlike Saiyad, who came from Gujarat where Muslims are anyway not politically assertive, Javed has the advantage of having done mainstream politics in the Hindi heartland.

Javed's appointment has evoked mixed feelings in the Congress as one section strongly felt the young leader should have been allowed to work under a senior's guidance.

A veteran leader told The Telegraph: "What is of grave concern is that experiments continue at this critical juncture. If we are preparing a team for the 2019 battle, we should put the resources to optimum use. Muslims will play a critical role and a senior leader should have been given charge."

Another leader said: "This (Javed's appointment) is purely driven by Rahul's quest for a generational shift, not political wisdom. Making Sushmita Dev the Mahila Congress chief was a blunder and the same has been repeated now.

"Young leaders should be groomed but they don't have the stature to carry out responsibilities on their own. The better option was to make these young leaders the functional heads for mobilisation and management while keeping a known face at the top."

This view was supported by a large number of leaders.

A former MP said: "Karnataka is the latest lesson; though K.C. Venugopal was the general secretary, the job could not have been done without Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ashok Gehlot. Why can't a Sushmita Dev or a Nadeem Javed work under an Ambika Soni, Mohsina Kidwai, Salman Khurshid, Shakeel Ahmed... etc for a year, till the parliamentary elections and then take over?

"Youth is being taken as the decisive factor despite frequent failures and the growing evidence of the utility of experienced seniors."

In election-bound Madhya Pradesh, Rahul has appointed veteran Digvijaya Singh as the chairman of the coordination committee.

Although the young Jyotiraditya Scindia was made the campaign committee chief, the tilt towards experienced leaders was obvious in the appointment of Kamal Nath as the state unit chief.

Senior leader Suresh Pachauri was on Tuesday appointed as the chairman of the manifesto committee.

Even seniors agree that Rahul has quietly brought about structural changes in the Congress organisation by creating new units to target specific social groups and by giving a bigger profile to the existing departments.

While the All India Professionals' Congress headed by Shashi Tharoor has been welcomed by everybody, separate outfits on unorganised workers and fishermen too have evoked positive responses.

The creation of a data analytics department with young professionals has been hailed widely.

Rahul has dropped veteran Sushil Kumar Shinde as the general secretary in charge of Himachal Pradesh. Former Rajya Sabha member from Maharashtra Rajni Patil has been given the post.

While Bihar got two new AICC secretaries in younger leaders Virendra Singh Rathore and Rajesh Lilothia, Jitendra Baghel and Biswaranjan Mohanty have been appointed secretaries for Gujarat.