Puducherry assembly elections 2021: Congress forms 12-member panel ahead of state polls

Puducherry, Jan 07: The Congress has come up with an initiative to set up a 12-member panel to oversee the election campaign management and coordination ahead of assembly elections in four states and a Union Territory. Four states, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, along with Puducherry are scheduled to go to polls before May this year.

According to reports, the party has appointed Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and senior party leaders Mukul Wanki and Shakeel Ahmad Khan as the senior observers for Assam.

In Kerala, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro and former Karnataka deputy chief minister G Parameshwara will take charge.

Meanwhile, Former Karnataka CM Veerappa Moily, along with Pallam Raju and Nitin Raut will oversee the poll preparedness in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. In West Bengal, BK Hariprasad, Alamgir Alam and Vijay Inder Singla have been appointed, it added.

"The leaders will coordinate with the general secretaries to oversee preparations for the elections. They are all senior leaders who will monitor election management," party general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal said.

The party statement said Congress president Sonia Gandhi has appointed the leaders as senior observers for overseeing the election campaign management and coordination in states where assembly elections are going to be held in 2021. Their appointment is with immediate effect.

They will discharge their duties in close coordination with AICC general secretaries and in-charges in the respective states, the party said. The party faces an uphill task after it suffered a drubbing in the Bihar assembly elections in November, where it only won 19 seats of the 70 seats it contested.

The result of the Bihar polls has prompted the party to take other measures, including an outreach programme to win back women voters.