Mission UP: Congress screening panel meets in Lucknow, first list of candidates for Assembly polls to be out soon

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], October 1 : Striving towards its "Mission Uttar Pradesh", Congress' Screening Committee for the upcoming state Assembly polls, held a meeting in Lucknow on Thursday.
The Screening Committee chaired by AICC general secretary Bhanwar Jitendar Singh held its meeting in the party's state headquarters in Lucknow. It was attended by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Deepender Singh Hooda, Varsha Gaikwad, Ajay Singh Lallu, Aradhna Mishra Mona, Rohit Chaudhry, Dheeraj Gujjar and other members of the Committee.
According to top sources in the Uttar Pradesh Congress, it was decided in the meeting that the list of the candidates will be finalised very soon and it will be sent to the Central Election Committee of AICC.
This poll season, the Congress party is probably breaking the traditional trend of announcing the candidate list at the nick of time.
Sources said the party has scrutinised the probable candidates for 150 Assembly seats. Out of the 150 seats, Control Rooms have been set up already on 78 Assembly segments for the poll strategy and operations.
Elections in the state are due in early next year.
Sources said on few seats, candidates have been given a green signal by the party and have been asked to hit the ground zero and start preparations for the poll battle. The poll performance of Congress this time is crucial as Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is the party's in-charge of the state.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is camping in Lucknow since Monday. On Thursday, she met with the leaders of different small parties and discussed alliance strategy. She also met with the groups of different sections of society. Further, she is likely to steer the "Pratigya Yatra" from October 7 along with public rallies in Meerut, Gorakhpur and Prayagraj, sources said.
"Although the poll dates have not been announced, we are committed to fighting the elections to win. We are announcing the list much before the time so that the candidates get enough time to reach out to the voters," sources told ANI.
Preparations are going on in Congress at the different layers. The workers training campaign with the slogan "Prashikshan se parakram tak" has already completed two stages where party workers at the district and block levels were trained by the team.
On the other hand, Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid has been given a task to prepare a "People's Manifesto", which will be the vision of party for the state. For this purpose, national spokesperson Supriya Shrinate and AICC Co-In-charge of Uttar Pradesh Rohit Chaudhry and Dheeraj Gurjar are visiting various districts across the state and holding meetings with different sections of the society.
In the 2017 Assembly elections, the BJP won a landslide victory winning 312 Assembly seats. The party secured a 39.67 per cent vote share in the elections for 403-member Assembly. Samajwadi Party bagged 47 seats, BSP won 19 while Congress could manage to win only seven seats.