LS polls: Capt to head campaign committee, Jakhar election panel
SIDHU, MANPREET, BAJWA, BHATTAL, SONI, DULLO, KAYPEE ALSO MADE MEMBERS ALONG WITH ALL MINISTERS, MPS, MLAS
CHANDIGARH: The All India Congress Committee (AICC) on Tuesday announced various committees for the Lok Sabha polls. While chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh has been named chairman of the 21-member campaign committee for Punjab, state party chief Sunil Jakhar will head of the 21-member state election committee.
AICC general secretary and in-charge of state Asha Kumari has been appointed chairperson of the coordination panel and state PWD minister Vijay Inder Singla will lead the publicity panel. Former MP Manish Tewari has been named as the chairperson of the media coordination panel.
In a release, party general secretary KC Venugopal said Congress president Rahul Gandhi has approved the appointments. The party has tried to do a balancing act by including all factions, regions and castes and religions in the four panels. All the 17 ministers and 60 MLAS have also been accommodated.
The election committee headed by Jakhar comprises Amarinder, his wife and former Union minister Preneet Kaur, former CM Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa along with six ministers — Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Rana Gurmeet Sodhi, OP Soni, Sukhbinder Sarkaria, Sunder Sham Arora, Gurpreet Kangar — and seven MLAS. Emmanuel Rehmat Masih, a Christian, is also a part of the panel.
The campaign committee headed by Amarinder includes Jakhar, Rajya Sabha MPS Ambika Soni and Shamsher Singh Singh Dullo, along with former Union minister Ashwani Kumar and former MP Mohinder Singh Kaypee. Ministers Navjot Singh Sidhu, Manpreet Singh Badal, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot and Razia Sultana are also a part of the panel, which has six MLAS and another Christian leader Salamat Masih.
The 20-member coordination panel headed by Asha Kumari comprises Amarinder, Jakhar, Preneet, Soni, Bhattal and former minister Lal Singh as members, besides ministers Brahm Mohin- dra, Tript Rajinder Bajwa, Charanjit Singh Channi and Aruna Chaudhary and three MPS Ravneet Bittu, Chaudhary Santokh Singh and Gurjit Singh Aujla.
The 25-member publicity panel headed by Singla includes minister Balbir Sidhu and 23 MLAS, including three senior MLAS — Randeep Nabha, Amrik Dhillon and Rakesh Pandey — who had publicly aired their grievances against the CM after being left out of the cabinet.
The media coordination committee headed by Tewari has MLA Kulbir Zira, who was suspended after he publicly criticised the government and was reinstated later.