NEW DELHI: Congress on Saturday set up three key committees to prepare for 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the crucial being a compact group of senior leaders for strategic planning.

In what appears an attempt to put the party in election mode, AICC announced a “core group”, manifesto committee and publicity committee. The “core group” comprises A K Antony, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad , Ashok Gehlot, P Chidambaram, Mallikarjun Kharge, Jairam Ramesh, K C Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala.

While packed with the acknowledged GenNext of the AICC, the nine-member panel also includes young leaders close to party chief Rahul Gandhi . The formation of these panels is aimed at starting the planning for May 2019 in advance, independent of the end-year elections to three BJP-ruled states.

The 19-member “manifesto committee” comprises Sam Pitroda, Salman Khurshid, Kumari Selja, Shashi Tharoor, Rajeev Gowda, Manpreet Badal and Bhalchandra Mungekar among others.

