Cong forms three panels
2019 General Election All senior colleagues to aid, advise Rahul in poll-related matters
To eliminate any surprise element of Prime Minister Modi advancing the Lok Sabha election with the Assembly elections in four states, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday constituted three main panels to handle the 2019 General Election.
These are the core group committee, manifesto committee and publicity committee.
The decision was taken in the wake of the Election Commission calling a meeting of all national and state parties in New Delhi on Monday to discuss poll reforms with regard to the Lok Sabha election.
The announcement by Congress general secretary Ashok Gehlot, however, did not name any chairpersons or conveners of the three panels and the names on the lists were announced alphabetically. All senior colleagues have been included. The Congress also readied itself for an early selection of the Lok Sabha candidates while sounding an alert for the likeminded parties to call an early meeting to form the grand alliance in case of an eventuality.
The nine-member core group committee, who will be advising Rahul in all pollrelated matters, comprises AK Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, P Chidambaram, Ashok Gehlot, Ahmed Patel, Mallikarjun Kharge, Jairam
The committees are core group, manifesto and publicity committee. The announcement by Cong gen secy Ashok Gehlot, however, did not name any chairpersons or conveners. All senior colleagues have been included.
Ramesh, Randeep Singh Surjewala and KC Venugopal.
The 19-member manifesto committee comprises Manpreet Badal, Chidambaram, Sushmita Dev, Prof Rajeev Govda, Bhupender Singh Hooda, Jairam Ramesh, Salman Khurshid, Kumari Selja, Bindu Krishnan, Raghuveer Meena, Prof Bhalchandra Mungekar, Meenakshi Natarajan, Rajni Patil, Sam Pitroda, Sachin Rao, Tamradhwaj Sahu, Mukul Sangma, Shashi Tharoor and Lalitesh Tripathi.
The 13-member publicity committee has Anand Sharma, Milind Deora and Kumar Ketkar (Mumbai), Manish Tewari, Pramod Tiwari, Bhakta Charan Das, Praveen Chakravarty, Pawan Khera, VD Satheesan, Jaiveer Shergil, Rajeev Shukla, Divya Spandana and Randeep Singh Surjewala as its members.