Congress forms committees for Bihar polls

Ahead of the Bihar polls, Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi has announced various committees to manage the Congress campaign.

Sonia has constituted an election management and coordination committee, publicity committee, media coordination committee, public meeting and logistics committee, legal committee and office management committees for the Bihar Assembly election.

Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala has been given the key charge of managing the elections and will head 14-member poll management and coordination committee in which Mohan Prakash is the convenor and Shakiluzzaman Ansari is a member.

Subodh Kumar will head publicity committee, Pawan Khera will head media committee, Brijesh Kumar Munan to head the logistics committee while Ashok Ram will look after office management committee and Varun Chopra will look after the legal team.

The Congress on Saturday released the list of star campaigners ahead of the first phase of Bihar election scheduled for October 28, which includes party chief Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha.

Others on the list are senior leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad, Shaktisinh Gohil, Shakeel Ahmed, and Surjewala, apart from Congress Chief Ministers like Bhupesh Baghel, Ashok Gehlot, Amarinder Singh, former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Raj Babbar, Pramod Tiwari, Sachin Pilot, Madan Mohan Jha, and Tariq Anwar.

Former Governor Nikhil Kumar, Sadanand Singh, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Kirti Azad, Sanjay Nirupam, Udit Raj, Imran Pratapgarhi, Prem Chand Mishra, Anil Sharma, Ajay Kapoor, and Virender Singh Rathore are also on the list.

The Congress, as part of the Grand Alliance along with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Left, will contest 70 seats in the 243-member Bihar Assembly.

In the first phase, the Congress will contest 21 seats.

The Bihar election is scheduled to be held on October 28, November 3 and November 7. Counting of votes will take place on November 10 and results will be out the same day.