Party General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi has been given charge of the media department at a time when the Congress does not want further controversies.
Moily, who will travel to Chikkaballapur in Karnataka, his Lok Sabha constituency, on Saturday, has been asked to demit charge of the media. On Friday morning he made a strong statement against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar where he said that the Janata Dal-United leader was getting too big for his boots.
The statement comes at a time when the Congress is looking to woo the JD-U in the post-election scenario.
Congress sources said Moily's statement is not the only reason why he has been asked to go. It also has to do with his inability to control the party's spokespersons, some of whom have indulged been in verbal one-upmanship.
The party leadership is said to be very miffed with Union minister turned spokesman Ashwini Kumar who has given a virtual certificate to Nara Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party and J Jayalalithaa's All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, calling them secular parties at a time when the Congress is locked in battle with both parties in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
The election in Tamil Nadu is to take place on Wednesday, May 13, and Kumar's remarks have angered the Congress's ally in that state, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
Another spokesman Jayanti Natarajan earlier said the Congress does not agree with DMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's notion about a separate state of Eelam.
Congress leaders say when the government is working overtime to project empathy for the displaced Tamils in Sri Lanka, the overtones of which are felt in the Tamil Nadu election, there was no need for Natarajan to make such a categorical statement.
It is in this scenario that Janardhan Dwivedi has been brought in, particularly since the Congress leadership sees the next few weeks as an extremely sensitive time.
Dwivedi is considered publicity-shy and known to be in harmony with Congress President Sonia Gandhi's thinking; he has had a long working relationship with her as her Hindi speech writer.
