Cong appoints 6 committees for Delhi Assembly polls

Ahead of the high-stakes Delhi Assembly polls, the Congress on Tuesday appointed six election-related panels with state unit chief Subhash Chopra heading the 56-member election committee and Kirti Azad made chair of the 165-member campaign committee.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has also approved appointment of 69-member manifesto committee, 164-member publicity committee, 65-member election management committee and 104-member media coordination committee, a party statement said.

After the Jharkhand polls, in which the JMM-led opposition trumped the BJP, all eyes are on Delhi Assembly elections where a three-way contest will take place between the AAP, the BJP and the Congress.

While Chopra and Azad, former BJP leader who joined the Congress barely months before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, will head the election and campaign panels respectively, former DPCC chief Ajay Maken will head the manifesto committee, J P Agarwal publicity committee, Arvinder Singh Lovely chief of the election management committee and Mukesh Sharma head of media coordination committee.

Several senior leaders of the party such as Kapil Sibal, Janardan Dwivedi and Karan Singh have been appointed as members in both the election and campaign committees.

Elections are set to take place for the 70-member Delhi Assembly in January or early February.

In 2015 assembly polls, the AAP had routed both the BJP and Congress by securing an absolute majority, winning 67 out of 70 seats. The BJP had managed to secure just 3 seats while the Congress had drawn a blank.

Last week, the Congress had set up a screening committee to shortlist candidates for the Delhi Assembly election with Rajeev Satav as its head.

The screening committee includes party leaders Virender Singh Rathore and Challa Vamshi Chand Reddy.

P C Chacko, AICC in-charge for Delhi, Delhi PCC chief Chopra and AICC secretary Kuljit Singh Nagra are the ex-officio members of the screening committee.