The first meeting of the newly-constituted Congress Working Committee (CWC) will be held in Hyderabad on September 16 while the extended working committee meeting will be held the following day and will be attended by all CWC members, PCC Presidents, CLP leaders and Parliamentary Party office-bearers.
AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal on Monday said Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has called for a crucial meeting of the newly constituted CWC in Hyderabad. A rally has also been scheduled to take place near Hyderabad, during which the party will unveil its promises and guarantees for the upcoming assembly polls in Telangana.
Kharge also constituted the party's Central Election Committee with 16 members including himself and former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. The development comes ahead of key assembly elections in states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The panel discusses and finalises the list of candidates for any parliamentary or state elections, including bypolls. The other members of the election committee include leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, and veteran party leaders Ambika Soni and Madhusudan Mistry.
Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister T S Singh Deo, former Union minister Salman Khurshid and Lok Sabha MP from Telangana Uttam Kumar Reddy, besides Karnataka minister K J George, are also members of the key panel. Former Uttarakhand Congress chief Pritam Singh, Bihar MP Mohammed Jawed and Rajya Sabha MP Amee Yajnik, besides former MP P L Punia and Madhya Pradesh Congress leader Omkar Markam, have also been included as members of the all-important panel.
Kharge had last month reconstituted the CWC, retaining the old guard, giving space to the young and including prominent G23 group leaders such as Shashi Tharoor and Anand Sharma, in the 84-member top decision-making body of the party.