Kharge chairs CEC meeting to discuss candidates for Mizoram, Chhattisgarh (Ld)

New Delhi, Oct 12 (SocialNews.XYZ) Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday chaired the meeting of the party's Central Election Committee (CEC) to discuss the candidates for Chhattisgarh and Mizoram assembly polls.

The candidates for Chhattisgarh are yet to be finalised and the candidates for Mizoram have almost been finalised.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge chaired the CEC meeting to discuss the candidates for the 40-member Mizoram Assembly and 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly that will go to polls next month.

Besides Kharge, meeting at the party headquarters was also attended by CPP chairperson Sonia Gandhi, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Ambika Soni, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, his deputy TS Singh Deo, Chhattisgarh Congress chief Deepak Baij, Chhattisgarh in-charge Kumari Selja, among others. From Mizoram, party in-charge Bhaktacharan Das, Mizoram state Congress president Lalsawta and many others attended the meeting.

After over three hour long meeting, speaking to the media, Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal said: "Have cleared Mizoram and on Chhattisgarh we will continue discussion."

The hint came in the wake of the party's plan to drop at least 20 sitting MLAs in the upcoming Assembly elections.

Venugopal also said that the CEC will discuss candidates for Madhya Pradesh and Telangana tomorrow. Meanwhile in a post on 'X', formerly Twitter, Kharge said: "In Chhattisgarh, we have written a new chapter through 'Nyay scheme' in last 5 years. Welfare of villages, poor, farmers, youth, women and all sections of society has been established."

"Today, a meeting of the Central Election Committee was held regarding Chhattisgarh. 'Bharosa Barbara, phir se Congress sarkar'," he said.

For Mizoram, Kharge said: "People of Mizoram are vying for change. Congress party has a historic connection with this beautiful state, encompassing peace, development and welfare. We are confident that Mizoram shall strengthen the Congress party and give us a chance to serve, like we have in the past. We discussed the political strategy for the ensuing Mizoram Assembly Elections in the Central Election Committee Meeting (CEC) today."

The 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly will go to polls on November 17 while the 119-member Telangana Assembly will go to polls on November 30.

The counting of votes will take place on December 3.

The CEC had met to discuss candidates for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly last week and over 140 seats were discussed. Meanwhile, commenting on the INDIA parties letter to Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg and Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Venugopal said: "That is the serious concern of the country. What Washington Post has written is a shocking thing for the country. We want to question Facebook. Here entire social media is being misused by the government. They are dividing the county. They have to look into it. This entire INDIA has written." Alleging partisan by the Meta's WhatsApp and Alphabet's YouTube, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties wrote to Zuckerberg and Pichai saying they are culpable of abetting social disharmony and inciting communal hatred in India."

It also alleged algorithmic moderation and suppression of Opposition leaders content on their platform while promoting ruling party (BJP) content.

INDIA parties also warned the two companies that in view of the upcoming national elections in 2024, it should consider these facts "seriously" and ensure immediately that Meta's and Alphabet's operations "in India remain neutral" and are not used wittingly or unwittingly to cause social unrest or distort India's much cherished democratic ideals.

Source: IANS