Congress constitutes UP poll panels, P L Punia to head campaign committee

The Congress on Friday constituted different panels for the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, with senior party leader P L Punia being named head of the crucial campaign committee.

Party president Sonia Gandhi has approved the proposal of the constitution of election campaign committee, election strategy and planning committee, election coordination committee, charge sheet committee and election manifesto committee of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC), a party statement said.

Punia will head the 20-member campaign committee with Pradeep Jain Aditya as the convenor. The panel includes the likes of Mohsina Kidwai, Pramod Tewari, Raj Babbar, R P N Singh, Naseemuddin Siddiqui, Imran Masood and Imran Pratapgarhi.

Rajesh Mishra has been named head of the 15-member election strategy and planning committee. Rakesh Sachan will be the coordinator of the panel.

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Nirmal Khatri will head the election coordination committee which includes the likes of Rajeev Shukla, Zafar Ali Naqvi and Begum Noor Bano.

Acharya Pramod Krushnam will head the 15-member charge sheet committee with Nadeem Javed named the coordinator of the panel.

UPCC president, CLP leader, AICC secretaries from UP and state heads of frontal organisations will also be members of these panels.

The party stated that senior leader Salman Khurshid will chair the manifesto committee and Supriya Shrinate will be the coordinator of the 11-member committee.

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The Congress also appointed additional office-bearers in the UPCC, naming three vice presidents, twelve general secretaries, a general secretary organisation and 31 secretaries.

Upendra Singh, Maqsood Khan and Jaywant Singh have been named vice presidents, while Dinesh Kumar Singh was appointed general secretary (organisation).

The Congress is gearing up for the polls with the general secretary in-charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra leading the party's charge against the BJP government led by Yogi Adityanath.

In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the Congress managed to bag only seven seats, while its ally SP secured 47 seats and the BSP won 19 constituencies.

The BJP, meanwhile, won the elections with a thumping majority as it clinched 312 seats in the 403-member legislative assembly to form the government.

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