New Delhi : Gearing up for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections to be held later this year, Congress has decided to give the command of every district in the state to a national secretary.
Among 12 national secretaries who will look after Congress poll preparations, one-third belong to Priyanka Gandhi's team. Sources believe that Priyanka Gandhi will have a special focus on Congress' mission to return to power in the hill state.
Congress on Saturday decided that All India Congress Committee (AICC) national secretaries will be posted in every district of the state to strengthen the organization before the elections. The national secretaries include Deepika Pandey, Chandan Yadav, Rajesh Tiwari, Rohit Chaudhary, Dheeraj Gurjar, Pradeep Narwal, Vikas Upadhyay, Vijay Singla, and Chetan Chauhan are likely to start their work in a week time. The tasks have been assigned to them days after conclusion of Chintan Shivir in Rajasthan's Udaipur.
Congress General Secretary of Organisation KC Venugopal and in-charge Rajeev Shukla held a meeting at the Congress headquarters today and gave necessary instructions.
One of the leaders present in the meeting told ANI that it was an initial meeting but they have been asked to focus on booth management and preparing booth committees which are considered crucial for winning polls.
A plan is also being made to convene a meeting of the Congress Working Committee in Shimla in June.
Recently, the Congress leadership reshuffled the organization in Himachal Pradesh and made Pratibha Singh the state president, the wife of former Chief Minister late Virbhadra Singh.
In the by-elections held last year, Congress gave a big blow to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by winning Mandi Lok Sabha and all three assembly seats. A major challenge before Congress would be to keep the anti-BJP vote united.
Buoyed by Aam Aadmi Party's victory in neighbouring Punjab, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal and several other party leaders have visited to Himachal Pradesh in an attempt to make inroads into the hill state.