Guwahati: Senior Congress leader and former Assam minister Pradyut Bordoloi's career, which took a hit after his loss in the 2016 Assembly polls, has received a huge boost with the AICC entrusting him with two important responsibilities this month.

On September 1, AICC informed him about his nomination to the committee to mobilise resources for the party by president Rahul Gandhi, the only one from the Northeast, as well as attend the September 6 meeting of PCC presidents and treasurers to discuss efforts towards resource mobilisation for the organisation ahead of the 2019 general elections.

On Friday, Rahul Gandhi appointed him AICC secretary in-charge of Nagaland, a state where the Congress was wiped out in the last Assembly polls, along with eight others, including state colleague Bhupen Kumar Borah, who was retained as AICC secretary in-charge of Tripura.

In between, he was also appointed AICC observer for Mizoram, to lead the party's nationwide protest on September 10 against rising fuel prices in Mizoram.

This appointment means Bordoloi will have to relinquish his posts in the Assam PCC of which he is one of the vice-presidents and chairman of the media department.

"We are happy for him but there will be a vacuum in the PCC given his experience, networking and oratory skills. There will be lot of pressure on PCC pesident Ripun Bora now," a PCC secretary said.

Party insiders told The Telegraph that the series of assignments handed out to 60-year-old Bordoloi, who was seen by a section in the party as a future chief ministerial candidate, reflect the "faith" the party is reposing in his abilities despite the "setback" he suffered in the 2016 polls.

He lost the Margherita Assembly seat in Upper Assam, which he had been winning since 1998.

Bordoloi had been drafted as a minister by former chief minister Tarun Gogoi since his first term in 2001.

He had held critical portfolios such as home and industries but quit on his own in 2015 when pressure mounted on Gogoi to reshuffle his ministry due to intense intra-party infighting, which eventually led to the ouster of the well-entrenched Congress in the 2016 polls.

"For most, he has remained a riddle in the party despite everything going for him. Undoubtedly his career has received a huge boost this month. It is now upto him to make the most of the opportunities to recover lost ground for the party and himself," one of them said.

The PCC president, welcoming the development, also said the appointment of Bordoloi and Borah also reflected the importance the new AICC dispensation is giving to Assam. "There is another AICC secretary in Rana Goswami from Assam. There is Gogoi as CWC member, his son Gaurav as a special invitee to CWC and Sushmita Dev as the national Mahila Congress president," Bora said.

Of the nine AICC secretaries appointed on Friday, three are from Meghalaya (Zenith Sangma in-charge of Arunachal Pradesh, Charles Pyngrope in-charge of Manipur, Ampareen Lyngdoh in-charge of poll-bound Mizoram), two from Assam (Bordoloi and Borah), one each from Manipur (Victor Keishing in-charge of Meghalaya) and Tripura (Pradyot Deb Barman in-charge of Sikkim).

"These appointments were important to chalk out strategy as we have lost Assam, Arunachal, Manipur and Meghalaya to the BJP since it came to power at the Centre in 2014. We have virtually no presence in Tripura and Nagaland. A lot will depend on how Faleiro for Northeast and Rawat in Assam take the team forward," a party insider said.