Senior Congress leader B.K.
Senior Congress leader B.K. Hariprasad will lead the AICC’s screening committee for the West Bengal Assembly elections while Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge is expected to head the screening committee for the Tamil Nadu polls.
Mr Hariprasad, an AICC general secretary and sitting MP, will leave for Kolkata on Friday to meet state Congress leaders. The other members of the screening committee are AICC general secretary in charge of the state Dr C.P. Joshi, AICC secretary Bhakta Charan Das, PCC president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, CLP leader Mohammad Sohrab and AICC secretary Shakeel Ahmed Khan.
It is unclear whether the party will be contesting all the seats on its own as the Congress has not yet formally aligned itself with any party or front against the ruling Trinamul Congress.
Last time it had fought the Assembly polls with the Mamata Banerjee-led party against the CPI(M)-led Left Front and benefited. In this election, it will be interesting to see whether Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi will attack the Trinamul Congress during the election campaign.
The Trinamul Congress had remained with the Congress on a number of issues in the Lok Sabha against the Modi government Although the AICC’s stated position is that it wants to check the BJP from gaining space in West Bengal, the state Congress views the Trinamul Congress as more dangerous than the BJP in the state.
In Tamil Nadu, the Congress has no major stake and is fighting the polls under the DMK-led front against the ruling AIADMK.
