Party unlikely to meet Sept 30 deadline for announcing candidates
The Newz Radar
With the race for the Assembly poll ticket intensifying in the Congress intensifying, the party has called off its screening committee’s September 15 meeting in Delhi to zero down on the probable candidates.
With this, the poll momentum of the Congress, which was in the forefront regarding the selection of candidates and had said that it would announce nominees by September 30, has been affected.
While a few Congress leaders said the meeting had been put off as the committee was yet to complete the screening of the ticket aspirants, sources said the delay was on account of the intense tussle for the poll tickets.
The Congress is yet to announce a fresh date for the meeting. Two members of the screening committee are on a visit to Himachal are learnt to be preparing their survey report after visiting each Assembly constituency, which will be placed before the screening committee whenever its meeting is called.
At the election committee meeting held in Delhi last week, there was a brainstorming about tickets. After the meeting, discord came to fore over the names of candidates in several seats. If political experts are to be believed, the screening committee has a tough task at its hand.
After the meeting, the leaders had sent ‘single panel’ names for 43 seats, which was objected by several leaders later.
Subsequently, the panels were revised and more names were added in some seats. The Congress is also conducting a survey again to look for suitable candidates even if someone was outside the panel. The aspirants who have applied for ticket have presented their side before the committee.
After the election committee meeting, instructions have been issued to prepare constituency-wise records. Factors such as defeat in the 2017 poll, the margin of victory or defeat, segments where the party is continuously losing, etc, have to be taken into account. All these factors would be placed before the screening committee so that every aspect could be checked before finalising the ticket, said sources.
