NEW DELHI: Ahead of the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, the Congress on Wednesday constituted the Pradesh Election Committee for the state which includes state unit chief Pratibha Singh, CLP leader Mukesh Agnihotri and former Union minister Anand Sharma.
Former party state unit chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and Kuldeep Rathore are also part of the important panel.
"The Congress president has approved the constitution of the Pradesh Election Committee of Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPPCC) with immediate effect," the party announced.
Others who are part of the panel include former Rajya Sabha MP Viplove Thakur, former ministers Thakur Kaul Singh and Ram Lal Thakur, former MP Dhaniram Shandil, and party's state unit working presidents Harsh Mahajan, Rajender Ranan and Vinay Kumar besides Rajneesh Kimta.
All AICC secretaries from Himachal Pradesh and heads of all frontal organisations of HPPCC have also been included in the panel.
Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh are slated later this year and the Congress is seeking to wrest back power from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Two Himachal Pradesh Congress MLAs -- Pawan Kajal and Lakhwinder Rana -- joined the BJP here in the presence of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur who said his party will break the trend of governments being voted out every assembly poll in the state.
Congress' Kangra MLA Kajal and Nalagarh representative Rana, who is also the party's state working president, joined the BJP just months before the assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh.
Apart from Thakur, BJP national general secretary Arun Singh was also present at the event when the two Congress leaders switched over the saffron party.
Thakur welcomed the two leaders in the party.
"This time the party will break the trend of changing government in Himachal Pradesh and will retain the power," he told a press conference at the BJP headquarters here.
Both Kajal and Rana said they were impressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "inspirational leadership" and were joining the BJP due to the BJP's "pro-people" policies.
The state will go to poll later this year.