Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been appointed chairperson of the party’s screening committee for the upcoming Assam Assembly elections, underscoring the high-level focus on the state where the Congress is seeking to return to power through a broad opposition alliance.
The decision was announced late Saturday by AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, who said screening committees have been constituted for states and Union territories scheduled to go to polls in the first half of the year.
Four-member panels have been formed for Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to finalise candidates for the assembly elections.
Vadra, who is AICC general secretary and a Lok Sabha MP, will lead the Assam panel. Her close associates Imran Masood and Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka, both Members of Parliament, along with Sirivella Prasad, have been named as members of the committee.
The Congress is aiming to contest the Assam elections as part of a multi-party opposition alliance to challenge the ruling BJP.
Last month, the Congress joined hands with CPI(M), Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad, CPI, CPI(ML) Liberation, Jatiya Dal-Asom and the Karbi Anglong-based All Party Hill Leaders Conference to fight the polls on a common platform.
Veteran Congress leader Madhusudan Mistry has been appointed chairperson of the screening committee for Kerala, while former Chhattisgarh deputy chief minister T S Singh Deo will head the panel for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Senior leader B K Hariprasad has been named chairperson of the West Bengal screening committee.
The West Bengal panel will include Mohammad Jawed, Mamata Devi and B P Singh as members.
For Kerala, Rajya Sabha MPs Syed Naseer Hussain and Neeraj Dangi, along with Abhishek Dutt, will serve on the committee.
Party leaders Yashomati Thakur, G C Chandrashekhar and Anil Kumar Yadav have been appointed members of the screening panel for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
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The party said general secretaries in charge, Pradesh Congress Committee presidents, Congress Legislature Party leaders and concerned AICC secretaries will serve as ex-officio members of the screening committees in their respective states.
Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry are due in the coming months.
Polls to the 126-member Assam Assembly are expected to be held in March–April.
At present, the BJP holds 64 seats in the Assam Assembly, with its allies AGP, UPPL and BPF accounting for another 19 seats.
In the opposition, the Congress has 26 MLAs, AIUDF 15 and CPI(M) one, besides an Independent legislator.
