Madhusudan Mistry appointed as Haryana screening committee chairman

New Delhi, Sep 15 (IANS) With just months away from assembly polls in Haryana, Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi appointed Madhusudan Mistry as chairman of the six-member screening committee in the state.

In an official release, party General Secretary K.C. Venugopal on Saturday said, "Sonia Gandhi has constituted the screening committee for Haryana with Mistry as it's chairman.

She named senior party leader Deepa Dasmunshi and Devender Yadav as its members.

The committee also includes senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is also the in-charge for Haryana.

The Congress, eyeing a comeback in the state in the assembly polls, formed the screening committee to decide the party's candidates.

In 2014, the BJP improved its 2009 tally from 4 to 47, followed by the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) with 19 legislators and the Congress, which ruled the state won just 15 seats.

Two seats went to the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), and one each to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Five Independents were also elected.

Sonia Gandhi, who had appointed former Union Minister and party general secretary Kumari Selja as state unit chief and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda as chairman of the election committee on September 3, are also included in the committee.

Following the rift among the former state unit chief Ashok Tanwar and Hooda in the state, Sonia Gandhi has replaced former with Selja in the state.

Tanwar, considered close to former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and has had a running battle with Hooda since his appointment as state unit chief in 2014.

The UPA chairperson on September 10 constituted 28 member election committee for the state.