LS poll: Congress sets up panels to pick nominees

New Delhi, January 5

Dividing all states and Union territories into multiple clusters, the Congress on Friday constituted screening committees for choosing candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.

Bhakta Charan Das will be the chairman of cluster number four comprising Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Party leaders Neeraj Dangi and Yashomati Thakur have been appointed as members. Rana K P Singh will head cluster number five comprising Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura, Nagaland and Sikkim. Jaivardhan Singh and Ivan D’Souza are the two members.

In cluster number one comprising Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Lakshadweep and Pudducherry, Harish Chaudhary has been appointed as chairperson with Jignesh Mevani and Viswajeet Kadam as its members.

Cluster two consisting of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Odisha and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Chairman is Madhusudan Mistry.

Cluster three has Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Rajani Patil is Chairman. Members are Pargat Singh and Krishna Allavuru are members.