New Delhi: The Congress Friday announced major decisions ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, naming former Delhi MLA Alka Lamba as the new chief of its woman’s wing as well as constituting five screening committees for shortlisting of candidates for the 2024 General Elections. The grand-old party also appointed Varun Choudhary as the head of its students’ wing National Students’ Union of India (NSUI).
Alka Lamba is new Congress women’s wing chief
The Congress appointed ex-Delhi MLA Alka Lamba as the as the president of the All India Mahila Congress, replacing former women’s wing chief Netta D’Souza.
Notably, Lamba had been named as a special invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meet last year.
Alka Lamba, who started her political career at a young age, was elected as the president of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) as an NSUI candidate in 1995.
In 2014, Lamba had quit the Congress and joined Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) but returned to the grand old party in 2019.
Lamba, a former MLA from Delhi’s Chandni Chowk Assembly constituency, is considered a close confidante of Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal.
She was elected an MLA from Chandni Chowk Assembly constituency in 2015.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also appointed Varun Chaudhary as the new chief of NSUI.
The party appreciates the contributions of outgoing All India Mahila Congress President Netta D’Souza and outgoing NSUI president Neeraj Kundan, a Congress statement said.
Screening committees for LS polls candidates
The Congress also said it has constituted five screening committees for shortlisting candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, due in April-May. A party statement said the committees were constituted by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge.
The party has divided all states and Union territories into five clusters for the purpose.
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.
For Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Odisha, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Madhusudan Mistry has been made the panel chief. Suraj Hegde and Shafi Parambil will be its members.
For Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Rajani Patil has been appointed as the chairperson of the screening committee with Krishna Allavuru and Pargat Singh 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 appointed as members of this panel.
According to the party statement, all general secretaries, in-charges, state party chiefs, Congress Legislature Party leaders, and AICC secretary in-charges for states/UTs have been appointed as ex-officio members of the respective committees.
The formation of the committees came a day after top leaders held a meeting to discuss the party’s strategy for the Lok Sabha elections.
(With PTI inputs)
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