Jyotiraditya Scindia to head poll screening panel for Congress in Maharashtra

A party statement said the other members of the screening committee are All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary incharge for Maharashtra, Mallikarjun Kharge, state Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat and Congress legislature party leader K C Padavi.

The Congress on Thursday formed a six-member screening committee for the Maharashtra assembly elections, with senior party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia as its chairman.

New Delhi, India - March 14, 2018: Senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia addresses media at Parliament House, New Delhi, India, on Wednesday, March 14, 2018. ((Photo by Sushil Kumar/ Hindustan Times))

A party statement said the other members of the screening committee are All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary incharge for Maharashtra, Mallikarjun Kharge, state Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat and Congress legislature party leader K C Padavi.

Senior leaders Harish Chaudhary and Manickam Tagore are also its members.

The screening committee will finalise the candidates for the assembly polls and make its recommendations to the party’s central election committee. Maharashtra will go to the polls later this year.

After being out of government for five years, the Congress is seeking to wrest back power from the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is in alliance with the Shiv Sena, The saffron alliance won a comfortable majority in the last assembly election in 2014 and then secured 41 of the state’s 48 Lok Sabha in this summer’s general election. The Congress will contest the election in alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The Congress-NCP alliance ruled Maharashtra for three straight terms but slumped to a defeat in 2014. Since then, a number of leaders have left the NCP and the Congress for the BJP. The Opposition parties blame the ruling party of poaching its leaders, a charge rejected by the BJP .