Congress to announce names of candidates in next few days

By announcing the names of 195 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, BJP has left Congress behind in the election preparations. Now the names of Congress candidates are awaited. This may take about five to eight more days. The first meeting of the Central Election Committee (CEC) of the Congress is likely to be held by the end of this week to decide the names of the candidates. It is expected that the names of most of the sitting MPs can be decided in the first list. In fact, Congress has held formal meetings with its allies in most of the states regarding seat sharing.

For Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Gujarat, Goa and Chandigarh, seats have been divided between Congress's ally SP and AAP. Congress is now expected to announce seat sharing in some other states including Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir this week. After this, Congress will proceed with the process of announcing the names of its own candidates.

Sources said that the screening work has almost been completed in most of the states. The panels are being finalized. A CEC meeting is likely to be held by the end of this week, in which the first list of candidates will be approved after keeping these panels. Congress General Secretary Jitendra Singh has indicated that the CEC meeting will be held in the next four-five days. He has claimed that the names of the candidates will be declared immediately after the CEC meeting.

Sources said that the CEC will first discuss the names of sitting MPs who won the elections in adverse circumstances. Some MPs want to change seats, which will also be discussed and decided in the CEC. Sources said that screening work remains slow in some states including Rajasthan. In Rajasthan, the screening committee meeting could be held only once. The panel for all the 25 seats here has not been finalized yet.

In view of the current political situation, the Congress high command has given clear instructions to all the screening committees to thoroughly investigate the background of the potential candidate. Apart from being victorious, it is also important for the candidate to be durable. Apart from this, efforts are being made to field such leaders in the elections against whom there are no charges of any kind including criminal, corruption etc. In such a situation, they will be more likely to be durable.