The Congress party took a significant step in preparation for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, scheduled for April-May, by establishing five screening committees tasked with shortlisting potential candidates. To facilitate the process, the party has categorized all states and Union territories into five clusters.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge constituted the screening committees, according to a party statement. In the cluster comprising Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Lakshadweep and Pudducherry, Harish Chaudhary has been appointed as the screening committee chairperson with Jignesh Mevani and Viswajeet Kadam as its members.
Madhusudan Mistry has been appointed as the panel chief for Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Odisha, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The screening committee for these regions will also include Suraj Hegde and Shafi Parambil as its members. Meanwhile, for Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Rajani Patil will serve as the chairperson of the screening committee. Krishna Allavuru and Pargat Singh have been named as its members.
Bhakta Charan Das has been appointed as the chairman of the screening committee for the cluster comprising Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Party leaders Neeraj Dangi and Yashomati Thakur have been appointed as members of this committee.
Party leader from Punjab Rana K P Singh has been appointed the chairperson of the screening committee for the cluster comprising Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim. Jaivardhan Singh and Ivan D’Souza have been designated as members of this panel. As per the party's statement, all general secretaries, in-charges, state party chiefs, Congress Legislature Party leaders, and AICC secretary in-charges for states/Union Territories have been assigned as ex-officio members of the respective committees.