Poll-related panels like core group automatically ceased to exist after LS elections: Cong

The Congress on Wednesday said the core committee and other panels formed for the Lok Sabha polls have automatically ceased to exist with the end of the elections.

Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala made the assertion after an informal meeting presided by former Union minister A K Antony, in which senior Congress leaders discussed the party's strategy and preparations for the assembly elections in Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Maharashtra later this year.

Senior Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ghulam Nabi Azad, P Chidambaram, KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Anand Sharma and Surjewala were present at the meeting.

All the leaders present at the meeting were members of the party's core group, which was formed for the Lok Sabha election.

However, Surjewala clarified that contrary to the speculation in the media, there was no core group in the party now as all the election-related committees had ceased to exist.

The Congress had formed several panels such as the core committee, manifesto committee, and publicity committee for the general election with top leaders being part of them.