Cong readies poll list, awaits nod from Rahul

Bhubaneswar: The Congress state unit on Wednesday sent a list of probable candidates for 147 assembly and 21 Lok Sabha seats to the party high command for approval. Sources said the list includes names of 13 incumbent MLAs, some candidates deafeated in the previous general election, at least 50 new faces and 15 women.
The party has proposed the names of aspirants for all assembly and Lok Sabha seats notwithstanding its earlier announcement of alliance with Left parties and JMM. So far, the party has not entered into a seat-sharing agreement with the Left parties.

The list of aspiring candidates were sent following a meeting of Pradesh Election Committee (PEC) here that was attended by party’s state president Niranjan Patnaik, leader of opposition Narasingha Mishra, All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Odisha Jitendra Singh and AICC temporary in-charge of Odisha T S Singhdeo.

“We have finalised names of aspirants. Names of candidates will be announced only after the approval of party president Rahul Gandhi,” said Singhdeo, a cabinet minister in Chhattisgarh. “We have proposed names of two or three aspirants for almost all assembly and Lok Sabha seats to the central election committee (CEC). The party high command will take the final decision,” said Niranjan, who parried a question whether his name was in the list of aspirants.

Sources said Niranjan, who had unsuccessfully contested from Ghasipura assembly constituency in Keonjhar district in 2009, is willing to contest from an assembly constituency in Bhadrak district this time. Speculation is rife that Niranjan’s son Navjyoti is likely to make a political debut from Balasore Lok Sabha seat.

The party, which received jolts following recent exit of three sitting MLAs — Naba Kishore Das (Jharsuguda), Jogesh Singh (Sundargarh) and Krishna Sagaria (Koraput) claims to have found suitable substitutes in those constituencies. “We have given priority to those, who have been working at the grassroots and are connected to people. The central election committee will take the final decision on whether or not some leaders, who lost elections in 2009 and 2014, will be considered for tickets,” another Congress leader said.