Congress Sets Up 5 Screening Committees To Shortlist Lok Sabha Candidates

The committees were formed a day after a meeting was held to discuss strategy for the elections.

New Delhi:

The Congress on Friday constituted five screening committees for shortlisting candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, due in April-May.

The party has divided all states and Union territories into five clusters for the purpose.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge constituted the screening committees, according to a party statement.

In the cluster comprising Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Lakshadweep and Puducherry, Harish Chaudhary has been appointed as the screening committee chairperson with Jignesh Mevani and Viswajeet Kadam as its members.

For Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Odisha, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Madhusudan Mistry has been made the panel chief. Suraj Hegde and Shafi Parambil will be its members.

For Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Rajani Patil has been appointed as the chairperson of the screening committee with Krishna Allavuru and Pargat Singh as its members.

Bhakta Charan Das has been appointed as the chairman of the screening committee for the cluster comprising Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Party leaders Neeraj Dangi and Yashomati Thakur have been appointed as members of this committee.

Party leader from Punjab Rana KP Singh has been appointed the chairperson of the screening committee for the cluster comprising Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim.

Jaivardhan Singh and Ivan D’Souza have been appointed as members of this panel.

According to the party statement, all general secretaries, in-charges, state party chiefs, Congress Legislature Party leaders, and AICC secretary in-charges for states/UTs have been appointed as ex-officio members of the respective committees.

The formation of the committees came a day after top leaders held a meeting to discuss the party’s strategy for the Lok Sabha elections.

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