Congress candidate list delayed again

BHUBANESWAR: Announcement of the list of Congress candidates for the upcoming General Elections has been deferred again to first week of March.

Chairperson of Congress screening committee VD Satheesan said, “Names of candidates for Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies will be sent to the Central Election Commitee (CEC) by February 25 and the final list will be announced by March first week.”

The first round meeting of the screening committee concluded on Friday. Satheesan said the committee will meet again to take up the list of probable candidates for rest of the constituencies. Names of probable candidates for half of the Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies have been scrutinised in the first round of discussion.

President of All India Congress Committee (AICC) Rahul Gandhi had asked State Congress chiefs to finalise candidates list by February end during his meeting with the latter and leaders of Congress Legislature Party (CLP) on February 9.

The deadline for announcement of Congress candidate list has been deferred several times in Odisha. After taking over as OPCC president, Niranjan Patnaik had announced that candidates will be announced by end of August last year so that they get enough time to familiarise with the constituency and voters. But the issue receded to the background as infighting among Congress leaders came to the fore.