Mumbai: Former MP Gurudas Kamat has been appointed president of Mumbai Regional Pradesh Congress Committee in place of Murli Deora, who resigned from the post stating that it was high time to "pass on the torch" to the new generation.

Deora, who headed the Committee for two decades, announced the decision at a Congress workers' training shivir (camp) at Vile Parle on March 14 in the presence of All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary Mani Shankar Aiyar, who is in charge of training.

"Congress president Sonia Gandhi is pleased to appoint Gurudas Kamat as the president of Mumbai Regional Pradesh Congress Committee," a three-line release issued by AICC general secretary Vayalar Ravi in Delhi said.

In a major shake-up in the state Congress, Deora is the third senior Congress leader in recent times to quit his post after Vilasrao Deshmukh and Govindrao Adik quit as Chief Minister and MPCC president respectively.

A Bombay Regional Congress Committee release said that Deora, who was appointed to the post by late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi way back in August 1981, took the decision to step down following a meeting with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on March 12.

PTI