Cong announces jumbo PCC for poll-bound Punjab

The AICC today announced a jumbo Pradesh Congress Committee for poll-bound Punjab consisting of 36 vice presidents, 96 general secretaries and a 68-member executive committee.
The committee is seen as an all-please exercise given the fact that the assembly elections is less than a year away amid a stiff challenge from AAP on the one side and ruling Akali-BJP combine on the other.
The committee was announced by AICC general secretary Shakeel Ahmad after Congress president Sonia Gandhi approved it. The announcement was delayed as PCC chief Amarinder Singh had gone abroad and has just returned.
Former CLP leader Sunil Jakhar has been made the chief spokesperson as also the party's vice president.

Manpreet Badal, the estranged nephew of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who merged his party PPP with Congress when he joined a few months ago, has also been made the vice president.
Punjabi singer Hans Raj Hans, also a Dalit, who had joined Congress after quitting the Akali Dal and was being considered for a Rajya Sabha berth, has also been made the vice president, along with a host of senior Congress leaders.

The middle-rung party leadership has been accommodated among the general secretaries and the younger ones in the executive committee.
A list of 26 DCC presidents has also been announced, while Kamaljit Singh Dhillon has been made the treasurer.

Amarinder has already been made the PCC chief replacing Pratap Singh Bajwa and has also been declared the face of the party in the polls.
Congress is out of power in the crucial border state for the last 10 years and is striving to come back to power.