With its partners in the INDIA bloc derserting the Congress, dealing a blow to Opposition unity ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the grand old party, on Sunday, set up a 20-member election committee with an eye on the Andhra Pradesh Assembly polls that are scheduled to take place this year.

YS Sharmila Reddy, the daughter of former chief minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy and the sister of his successor Jaganmohan Reddy, was named the chairperson of the panel. Sharmila was appointed as the Congress's state president after she resigned her membership of the ruling YSRCP and joined the grand old party. Sharmila joined the Congress on January 4 at the party's Delhi headquarters in the presence of the party's national president Mallikarjun Kharge and MP Rahul Gandhi.