Mumbai: In a change of guard just a few months before the Assembly polls scheduled in Maharashtra, former All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Prabha Rao today (June 27, 2004) took over as the chief of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC).

All India Congress Committee replaced former MPCC president Ranjit Deshmukh with Rao, the veteran septuagenarian Congress leader from Wardha, following the party's "debacle" in the Vidarbha region of the State in the recently held Lok Sabha polls, a Congress spokesperson said.

Deshmukh has submitted his resignation in Nagpur earlier in the day, he added.

Yesterday, the much-publicised meeting MPCC, organised by Deshmukh to discuss the party's performance in the Lok Sabha polls, was abruptly called off on the direction of AICC, stating that senior party leaders would not be able to attend it.