New Delhi, Jun 5 (IANS): The Congress is gearing up for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls and has assigned a specific task to the party secretaries in the state, who are attached to state in-charge Rajeev Shukla.

The three secretaries are -- Tajinder Singh Bittu, Sanjay Dutt and Gurkirat Singh Kotli. Shukla in a letter to all of them gave them areas to focus upon.

Bittu has been asked to work in Shimla and will coordinate with the party's national and state functionaries. He will also work with secretaries attached in each region of Shimla, Sirmour and Solan.

Sanjay Dutt will be based in Kangra and Kotli in Hamirpur and Mandi. The Congress lost power in 2017 and in between it also lost its stalwart Veer Bhadra Singh and now his wife Pratibha Singh has been made state president to take on the BJP.

The state has not repeated any government so far and the Congress sees a chance in this. However, this myth has been broken in Uttarakhand and Kerala where incumbent governments got repeated.

The state goes to the polls this year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already sounded the alarm bells for Congress. He held a successful roadshow recently.

Political observers told IANS the focus of Modi's visit was the Assembly polls, which are slated later this year in the hill state.

Modi often recalls his special bond with the state. He is also trying to keep his party's 'double engine government' on the track by recapitulating milestones the state achieved through Centre's welfare schemes.