Moily appointed chairman of manifesto panel of Karnataka Cong

The Congress party today appointed former Union minister M Veerappa Moily as the chairman of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Manifesto Committee and B L Shankar as its vice chairman.
The committee, cleared by party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, has 33 other leaders of the state as its members, including former Union minister and ex-governor Margaret Alva.
The party is bracing for assembly elections in Karnataka, which goes to polls in mid-2018. The tenure of the current 224-member assembly in the state is up to May 28, 2018.
While the ruling Congress party is seeking to repeat its success in Karnataka, the BJP is trying to wrest the control of the state from the Congress party. The JD-S party is likely to be a major player in the state and could swing the results.

Gandhi also cleared a jumbo list of the Executive Committee of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee with 94 members.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, former chief ministers from the party, AICC office-bearers, MPs and ministers in the state, besides a number of other leaders have been made ex-officio members of the panel.
"Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has approved the constitution of the executive committee of Karnataka Pradesh Congress, Manifesto Committee for the forthcoming assembly election and 15 district Congress committees presidents," a statement from AICC general-secretary Janardan Dwivedi said.