Palpable anger against BJP, confident of victory in upcoming polls: Congress

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and MP Rahul Gandhi met general-secretaries, in-charges and screening committee members of four poll-bound states, with the party asserting it is "fully geared up" for the upcoming round of Assembly polls.

While elections will be held in Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana over September and October, Maharashtra and Jharkhand are set to go to polls later this year.

The three-phase elections to the 90-member Jammu and Kashmir assembly will be held on 18 and 25 September and 1 October. The Election Commission has also announced that elections to the 90-member Haryana Assembly will be held on 1 October and results for both the polls will be declared on 4 October.

Besides Kharge and Gandhi, Congress MP and general-secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal and members of the screening committees for Haryana, J&K, Maharashtra and Jharkhand were also present during the meeting at the Congress headquarters in Delhi.

"INC President Sh. Mallikarjun Kharge ji and LOP Sh. Rahul Gandhi ji held an important meeting with the General Secretaries, In-Charges and Screening Committee Members of the four election-going states at AICC HQ," Venugopal said on X.

"We are fully geared up for the upcoming round of elections. There is palpable anger against the BJP and its allies and we are confident that we will emerge victorious and fulfil the people's wishes for a pro-poor, pro-people government in each of these states," he said.

Earlier this month, the Congress set up screening committees for Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir to zero in on candidates for the upcoming assembly elections.

For Haryana, Kharge had appointed Ajay Maken as the chairman of the screening committee with Manickam Tagore, Jignesh Mevani and Srinivas B.V. as members.

Madhusudan Mistry was named the chairman of the screening committee for Maharashtra with Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka, Mansoor Ali Khan and Sirivella Prasad as members. For Jharkhand, Girish Chodankar is the chairman and Poonam Paswan and Prakash Joshi members.

Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa has been named the chairman of the screening committee for Jammu and Kashmir with Anto Antony and Sachin Rao as members.