Jairam Ramesh is Congress' campaign coordinator

Jairam Ramesh, who quit as a union minister earlier this week, was on Saturday appointed the Congress' campaign coordinator in the Lok Sabha  elections.

He will be setting up a 'war room' near the All India Congress Committee headquarters to coordinate the movement of Congress leaders on the campaign trail and meet the requirements of candidates.

A close aide of the Gandhi family since the time of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, Jairam is credited with coining the slogan Congress ka haath, aam aadmi ke saath in the 2004 elections, to counter the 'India Shining' slogan of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government.

A Rajya Sabha member from Andhra Pradesh, he is also a member of various AICC committees, including the Future Challenges Group that has general secretary Rahul  Gandhi as a member and the Pranab Mukherjee-led Manifesto Committee.

Known for his dynamism and fast thinking, Jairam was also a key member of the National Advisory Council headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and he took over its charge after the Office of Profit controversy.