Rahul Gandhi forms key Congress panels in Telangana ahead of elections, sets up 15-member core committee

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday appointed A Revanth Reddy and Ponnam Prabhakar working presidents of the Telangana unit of the party.

He also set up a 15-member core committee comprising all top party leaders in Telangana. The panel will make all key decisions ahead of the Assembly elections slated for later this year.

Rahul Gandhi at a recent Congress Working Committee meeting. Twitter/@RahulGandhi

The Assembly elections in the southern state was necessitated after Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao dissolved the Assembly ahead of its tenure, which was till May 2019.

Rahul on Wednesday also appointed RC Khuntia, All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Telangana, chairman of the coordination committee for the Telangana unit, with Pradesh Congress Committee president N Uttam Kumar Reddy its convener, a statement from AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot said. The panel comprises 52 leaders from the state.

The party's 17-member campaign committee will have MLA Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka as its chairman, DK Aruna as its co-chairman and Sravan Dasoju as convener.

The Congress president also set up a 41-member pradesh election committee with all senior leaders of the party in Telangana. It also has chiefs of various frontal organisations and departments as its special invitees, a party statement said.

The 35-member manifesto committee for the Telangana Congress will have Damodar C Rajanarasimha as chairman, K Venkat Reddy as co-chairperson and Bomma Mahesh Kumar Goud as its convener.

The 20-member strategy and planning committee for the Telangana Congress will be chaired by V Hanumantha Rao and co-chaired by party leaders Sarvey Satyanarayana, Madhu Yakshi Goud and Sridhar Babu, while P Sudhakar Reddy will be its convener, Gehlot said in the statement.