All India Congress Committee general secretary Priyanka Gandhi has been appointed as Chairperson of the Assam Congress screening committee tasked to shortlist candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections.
The AICC appointed its leaders as chairpersons of the screening committees across four states and one Union territory for which elections will be held in 2026. The committee has appointed former Rajya Sabha member Madhusudan Mistry as chairperson for the screening committee in Kerala, former Chhattisgarh Deputy CM TS Singh Deo as the head of the screening committee in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and senior Congress leader B. K. Hariprasad as the head for West Bengal.
Meanwhile, this is Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's first organisational assignment since she quit the AICC general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh. She has been the general secretary since then.
State Elections to run in four states and Puducherry
Assembly Elections across four states and Puducherry will take place in 2026. The Election Commission of India is expected to announce the dates of the polls in the time to come. Talking about the Assam Assembly Elections, polls will be held to elect all 126 members of the state assembly, as the current assembly’s term ends on 20 May 2026. The ECI is expected to conduct the polls around March and April 2026, likely in multiple phases as in previous elections. Assam remains a politically significant state in the Northeast, and the election will be closely watched at both the regional and national levels.
The main contest is expected between the BJP-led NDA, which is seeking a third consecutive term, and the Indian National Congress, along with other opposition parties and regional groups such as the AIUDF.
Eyes on West Bengal polls
The 2026 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election is scheduled to elect all 294 members of the state assembly, with polls expected around March and April 2026 as the current assembly’s term ends in May 2026. The state has been governed by the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee since 2011, and in the 2021 election, TMC won a large majority while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the principal opposition.
The election is shaping up as a high-stakes contest between the incumbent TMC, aiming to retain power on its development record and cultural appeal, and the BJP, which is campaigning aggressively on issues like border security, alleged infiltration and governance criticisms.
