Congress forms Screening Committee for Assam Polls, Phrithiviraj Chavan named as Chairman of the Panel

Guwahati: The Congress on Monday formed a screening committee ahead of the Assam Assembly Election 2021 slated to be held from March 27. The party has set up a nine member committee and appointed former Maharashtra Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan as the chairman of the screening committee.

In a press release issued by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) it has stated that the Congress President has constituted the following Screening Committee for the forthcoming assembly elections in Assam with immediate effect with Prithviraj Chavan appointed as the chairman while Kamaleshwar Patel and Dipika Pandey Singh is constituted as its members.

The other ex-officio members of the committee include AICC General Secretary In-Charge Jitendra Singh, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Ripun Bora, Assam CLP leader Debabrata Saikia, and AICC Secretaries Anirudh Singh, Prithviraj Prabhakar Sathe and Vikash Upadhaya.

The screening committee will deliberate on the names of the party candidates and make its recommendations to the Central Election Committee, which will make the final decision on the party candidate.

The committee will screen candidates for the upcoming assembly polls and make recommendations to the Central Election Committee. Chaired by Gandhi, the Central Election Committee will make the final decision on party candidates.

It needs to be mentioned here that Chavan who has been appointed as the chairman of the committee is one of the G-23 Congress leaders who was one of the signatories who have written to the party high-command on the decentralisation of power within the party. [Also Read: Latest poll-bound Assam Election News]

Recently some of the leaders from the group of 23 raised their concern on the functioning of the party and stressed the need to strengthen the grand old party. Along with, veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, senior Congress leaders, Kapil Sibal, Anand Sharma, Raj Babbar were present during the event held in Jammu. Known as the groups of dissenting leaders of Congress, the G-23 questioned the leadership of the party. This has also created a rift within the party ahead of the ensuing Assembly elections.

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