Priyanka Gandhi to head Congress screening panel for Assam polls

Guwahati/New Delhi, Jan 4 (PTI) Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been appointed chairperson of the screening committee for selection of candidates for the upcoming Assam assembly elections.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal on Saturday night announced the formation of screening committees for the five states and Union territories going to polls in the first half of this year.

The four-member committees were formed for Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to finalise candidate lists to contest the forthcoming state elections, a statement issued by the party said.

Vadra, AICC general secretary and parliamentarian, has been named the chairperson of the committee for Assam, where the Congress is looking to contest the elections in an alliance with other opposition parties and wrest power from the BJP.

Her close aides Imran Masood and Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka, both Lok Sabha MPs, along with Sirivella Prasad have been made the members of the Assam screening committee, the statement added.

While veteran Congress leader Madhusudan Mistry will head the screening committee for Kerala, former Chhattisgarh deputy chief minister T S Singh Deo will head the panel for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

Senior party leader B K Hariprasad will head the screening committee for West Bengal assembly polls. Other members of the West Bengal panel include Mohammad Jawed, Mamata Devi and B P Singh.

Rajya Sabha MPs Syed Naseer Hussain and Neeraj Dangi will be members of the screening committee for Kerala along with Abhishek Dutt. Party leaders Yashomati Thakur, G C Chandrashekhar and Anil Kumar Yadav will be the members of the screening panel for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

The statement also said that general secretaries/in-charges, PCC presidents, CLP leaders and AICC secretaries attached to the general secretaries for respective states will also be ex-officio members of the screening committees of their respective states.

Assembly elections in Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Assam are slated in the next few months.

The elections to the 126-member Assam Assembly are likely to be held in March-April this year.

Last month, Congress, CPI(M), Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP), CPI, CPI(ML) Liberation, Jatiya Dal-Asom (JDA) and Karbi Anglong-based All Party Hill Leaders Conference (APHLC) joined hands to fight the assembly elections from a common platform.

Presently, the ruling BJP's strength in the 126-member Assam Assembly is 64, while its allies AGP has nine MLAs, UPPL has seven and BPF has three members.

In the opposition camp, the Congress' strength is 26, AIUDF has 15 members and CPI(M) has one MLA. There is an Independent legislator as well. PTI TR SKC DV DV