LS Polls: Pawan Kumar Bansal to head Congress screening committee for Gujarat

New Delhi, 9 January 2014

Former union minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, who had to resign from the railway ministry last year after a corruption controversy will head the the Congress party’s screening committees for Gujarat, Rajasthan, Dadar Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, according to the list of screening committees for selection of Congress party’s candidates for upcoming Lok Sabha polls released on Thursday.

The meetings of the screening committees to select candidates are likely to begin soon after the January 17 AICC meeting in Delhi, where the party could name Rahul Gandhi as its prime ministerial candidate. Rahul wants declaration of 150-200 candidates for Lok Sabha polls by the end of this month, so that the candidates can have at least three months time to prepare for the elections that are likely to be held in April-May.

Rahul’s close aide Jitendra Singh has been made the screening committee in charge of electorally crucial Uttar Pradesh while home minister Sushilkumar Shinde heads the panel for Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and Andaman Nicobar.

Congress MP and spokesperson PC Chacko heads the panel for Delhi, Chandigarh, Haryana and Punjab.

Bhubaneshwar Kalita is the chairman of the screening committee for Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir and V Narayanasamy for Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura.

Mallikarjun Kharge is chairman the screening committee for Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Mumbai while Vayalar Ravi heads the panel for Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Karnataka, Ghulam Nabi Azad for Kerala, Lakshadweep, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu.

Oscar Fernandes has been made chairman for the panel in Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.