Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday constituted screening committees for poll-bound States and appointed senior party leader Madhusudan Mistry as the chairperson of the panel on Madhya Pradesh and Rajya Sabha member Kumari Selja for the post in Rajasthan.
Congress also appointed senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge as the party’s general secretary in-charge of Maharashtra. Kharge is the leader of Congress in the lok Sabha and replaces Mohan Prakash, who ceases to be a party general secretary.
Party’s chief whip in the Rajya Sabha Bhubaneshwar Kalita will chair the screening committee for Chhattisgarh, while luizinho Faleiro will head the same for Mizoram.
A Congress statement said party leader VD Satheesan will chair the panel for Odisha. The panel will have Jitin Prasada and Naushad Solanki as members.
These committees will screen the party candidates for the Assembly elections in these States and will recommend the names of candidates, which will finally be cleared by the central election committee chaired by the Congress president, it said.
Netta D’Souza and Ajay Kumar lallu will be members of the panel for Madhya Pradesh and lalitesh Tripathi and Shakir Sanadi will be part of the Rajasthan committee.
The statement said Rohit Chaudhary and Ashvinbhai Kotwal will be members of the panel for Chhattisgarh. While Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram go to polls later this year, Odisha will have election early next year.
Congress also appointed three AICC secretaries for Maharashtra. These include Sonal Patel from Gujarat, Ashish Dua from Haryana and Sampath Kumar from Telangana.
Outgoing AICC general secretary in charge of Maharashtra, Mohan Prakash, thanked UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi after he was relieved from the post.
Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ashok Chavan welcomed Mallikarjun Kharge’s appointment as the new AICC General Secretary in charge of Maharashtra, saying the Karnataka veteran was well-versed with the State politics.
“Maharashtra is an important State since it sends 48 members to the lok Sabha, second only to Uttar Pradesh (80 seats).
Therefore, Kharge’s appointment shows the seriousness with which the party looks at the State,” said a party leader.