Congress appoints observers for Gujarat assembly polls

New Delhi: The Congress on Monday appointed zonal and Lok Sabha constituency-wise observers for the upcoming Gujarat assembly polls.

Elections for the 182-member state assembly will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5. The counting of votes will be taken up on December 8.

Congress general secretary Mukul Wasnik will be the party observer for the south zone headquartered in Surat while Mohan Prakash will oversee the polls in Saurashtra zone and will be headquartered at Rajkot, according to a statement issued by All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary organisation K C Venugopal.

Former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan will be positioned at Baroda and oversee the polls for central region, and party leaders BK Hariprasad and K H Muniyappa will look after the north zone and will be headquartered at Ahmedabad.

The party also appointed observers for the 26 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. They would supervise the party's poll preparations in the assembly segments falling in their respective allotted parliamentary constituencies.

The Congress also appointed leaders Shakeel Ahmed Khan, Rajesh Lilothia and Jai Kishan as general observers, Shivaji Rao Moge as observer for south Gujarat and Kantilal Bhuria as observer for central Gujarat. The Congress is seeking to oust the BJP from power in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi where the saffron party has been in government for more than two decades.