Madhusudan Mistry to head Congress screening panel for Haryana assembly polls

Madhusudan Mistry will head six-member screening committee for the upcoming Haryana assembly elections.

New Delhi: Congress party on Saturday constituted a six-member screening committee for the upcoming Haryana assembly elections, with senior party leader Madhusudan Mistry as its chairman. The announcement regarding the new appointments was made by party general secretary KC Venugopal after the same was approved by interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Other members of the panel include Haryana Congress chief Kumari Selja, Congress legislative party leader and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and AICC general secretary state in-charge Ghulam Nabi Azad. Congress leaders Deepa Dasmunsi and Devender Yadav have also been made members of the panel.

Assembly elections in BJP-ruled Haryana are slated for later this year and the Congress is seeking to wrest back power from the BJP.

The new appointments were made nearly 10 days after the Congress named Selja Kumari as the chief of its Haryana unit and appointed Hooda chairperson of the election management committee.

The 46 other members of the committee include Selja, Hooda, Tanwar, Kiran Chaudhary, Randeep Singh Surjewala, AC Chaudhary, Phool Chand Mullana, Kuldeep Bishnoi, Kuldeep Sharma, Deepinder Singh Hooda, Geeta Bukkal and Shruti Chaudhary.

The election committee, with Selja as chairperson, will have 28 other members. They include Hooda, Tanwar, Surjewala, Chaudhary, Kuldeep Bishnoi, HS Chatha, Ajay Singh Yadav, Phool Chand Mullana, Kuldeep Sharma, Deepinder Hooda, Karan Singh Dalal, Savitri Jindal.

Sonia Gandhi had also appointed Hooda as Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader and by virtue of that, leader of opposition in the state assembly.

In the 2014 Assembly polls, the BJP won 47 seats and went on to form its government.

The Congress could only win 15 seats in the 90-member Assembly.

The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) had 19 legislators. Since then, the INLD has split into two factions.