Himachal Pradesh: Congress to appoint AICC secretaries in every district ahead of polls

As the party gears up for the upcoming Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled to be held later this year, the Congress has decided to give extend the command of every district in the state to a national secretary for strengthening the organisation before the polls. This came after a meeting held at the Congress headquarters on Saturday during which Congress General Secretary of Organisation KC Venugopal and in-charge Rajeev Shukla gave the necessary directions on the concern. 

Notably, among the 12 national secretaries that will be assigned to respective districts to look after the Congress' poll preparations, one-third of them belongs to the team of Priyanka Gandhi as she will have a special focus on the party's mission to return to power in the hilly state, reported ANI citing sources. 

In the meantime, as decided by the party leadership on Saturday, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) national secretaries who will be posted in the districts across Himachal Pradesh include certain names such as  Deepika Pandey, Chandan Yadav, Rajesh Tiwari, Rohit Chaudhary, Dheeraj Gurjar, Pradeep Narwal, Vikas Upadhyay, Vijay Singla, and Chetan Chauhan. They are likely to begin work in a week's time as their tasks have already been assigned to them after the conclusion of Congress' 'Chintan Shivir' in Rajasthan's Udaipur.

One of the leaders who were present at the party meeting on Saturday told ANI that it was the initial meeting but the party leadership has precisely asked all to focus on both booth management and preparing booth committees which are considered important for winning the elections. Along with that, a plan is also being made to convene a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) in Shimla in the month of June. 

AICC appoints new state president ahead of Himachal Pradesh elections 

It is pertinent to note that Congress after facing a major defeat in the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the previously held State Assembly elections reshuffled all its party units in several states. Himachal Pradesh unit was also shuffled leading to the appointment of Pratibha Singh as the state president of its unit last month. 

The wife of late Vidrbhadra Singh, former Himachal Pradesh chief minister, Congress MP Pratibha Singh made a major jump after winning the by-polls conducted last year further giving a stronghold to the grand old party for contesting against the ruling BJP in the state. 

The Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections are scheduled to take place in November this year for electing 68 members of the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly.

Image: PTI