Congress gets in poll-mode in Gujarat; names election panels

Gearing up for the upcoming Assembly polls in Gujarat, the Congress has announced the formation of various election committees as well as appointment of new office-bearers in the state organisation.
Senior party leaders Madhusudan Mistry and Siddharth Patel will be part of the key election manifesto and campaign panels.
Mistry, who is also a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat, will head a three-member Election Manifesto Committee, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) said in a release today.
The other two members of the panel are Deepak Babaria and Gaurav Pandya.
Former Gujarat Congress president Arjun Modhwadia will head the Election Publicity and Material Committee, while Patel, another ex-GPCC chief, has been made chairman of the Election Campaign Committee, said the release.

Senior party MLA Shaktisinh Gohil has been entrusted with the charge of Election Media Committee, while Naresh Raval has been made chairman of the Election Co-ordination Committee for Urban Areas.

The Congress high command has also appointed 10 new vice-presidents of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC). These include senior advocate Babubhai Mangukiya and former Lok Sabha MP Jagdish Thakor, said the release.
The appointments have been approved by the party vice- president, Rahul Gandhi, it added.
The state party unit will also get 14 additional general secretaries, 7 additional spokespersons and 63 new secretaries, said the release.
While four new members have been appointed in the existing Executive Committee, 13 city and district Congress committees have got new presidents.

The Congress is out of power in the BJP-ruled Gujarat for nearly two decades. The main opposition party saw desertions by several of its MLAs ahead of the August 8 Rajya Sabha polls.
The home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to go to the polls by the year-end.