Congress sets up 39-member Bihar Pradesh Election Committee

New Delhi: Congress President has cleared a 39-member Pradesh Election Committee for the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee with immediate effect, as per a note issued by AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal.

The panel features Rajesh Kumar Ram, Shakeel Ahmed Khan, Madan Mohan Jha, Jitendra Gupta, Shakeel U Zamaan Ansari, Sanjeev Prasad Tony, Motilal Sharma, Kapil Deo Prasad Yadav, Anshul Avijit, Brajesh Kumar Pandey, Jamal Ahmed Bhallu, Manju Ram, Azmi Baari, Nagendra Kumar Vikal, Kailash Pal, Rajesh Rathore, Nirmalendu Verma, Qaisar Ali Khan, Prabhat Kumar Singh, Kamal Deo Narayan Shukla, Kumar Ashish, Jamotri Mamta Nishad, Shakil ur Rehman, Santosh Kumar Srivastava, Vishwanath Sarraf, Ramesh Prasad Yadav, Shashi Ranjan, Subodh Mandal, Nadeem Akhtar Ansari, Neetu Nishad, Fauziya Rana, Ramshankar Kumar Pan, Uday Manjhi, Rekha Soren, Tarak Choudhary, Vishwanath Baitha, Sunil Kumar Patel, Sadhna Rajak and Khushboo Kumari.

Permanent invitees to the PEC are all MPs, all MLAs, all MLCs, all AICC secretaries from Bihar, all CWC members who are permanent or special invitees from Bihar, and the heads of frontal organisations.

The PEC is the state-level body that coordinates candidate shortlisting, campaign planning and messaging. It recommends names to the Screening Committee and the Central Election Committee, which take the final call on tickets.

It is said that the Congress is resetting its organisation early so that seat-sharing talks with allies and candidate selection do not bunch up close to the poll schedule.

The list also signals a spread across regions and communities in Bihar, with women and younger faces such as Manju Ram, Jamotri Mamta Nishad, Neetu Nishad, Fauziya Rana, Rekha Soren, Sadhna Rajak and Khushboo Kumari figuring on the panel.

The PEC is expected to begin constituency reviews, gather feedback from district units and frontals, and prepare the first round of recommendations for the Screening Committee.