New Delhi: A day ahead of the Congress Central Election Committee meeting for Punjab, party's Screening committee held a final deliberation, on Friday, before sending names to the higher authority for selection of candidates to contest upcoming Assembly elections.
In view of the rapid surge in Covid-19 cases, the meeting got switched to virtual mode, which was earlier supposed to be a physical one at 15 GRG, here in Delhi.
Meanwhile, a virtual meeting of Congress' CEC is scheduled for January 8, at 11 am which will be headed by party President Sonia Gandhi. The first list of candidates of the Congress party is expected to be released after this meeting.
While the Screening committee discussed probable candidates for all 117 seats, a consensus has been made approximately over 60 seats, sources informed. Almost 12 seats have also been demanded by the Indian Youth Congress members to seek tickets, party insiders said.
Sources added that there were some seats on which multiple suggestions were being made for choosing the candidates and the committee was awaiting an opinion of all the panel members.
It was also being said that for some seats, two different opinions were coming up on the part of Chief Minister Charanjeet Singh Channi and the party's state chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.
However, Congress' Screening Committee for Punjab has remained firm on its stand to give the party ticket to only one member from a family, it is also expected that some of the sitting MLAs may face the axe for scoring low on the "winnability" factor.
Meanwhile, Sunil Jakhar, senior Punjab Congress leader and head of Campaign Committee, went abroad for a few days at such a crucial time when the state is set to go to the polls in a few weeks and party candidates are not yet being finalized.
On the other hand, the Congress party's Central Election Committee held a meeting, on Friday, to discuss over names of candidates for the upcoming Goa Assembly
Sources informed ETV Bharat that the Committee has finalized candidates' names for 7 seats and it is expected that the second list of candidates will be released tomorrow.
The CEC meeting was headed by Congress President Sonia Gandhi. All the members attended this meeting via video conferencing.
The first list of candidates for Goa Assembly elections was being released in December, last year, where Congress had announced its eight contenders. The party has also given a go ahead to its legislature party leader Digambar Kamat and Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco.
Apart from them, Congress has picked Sudhir Kandolkar for Mapusa constituency, Tony Rodrigues for Taleigao, Rajesh Verenkar for Ponda, Sankalp Amonkar for Mormugao, Yuri Alemao for Cuncolim and Altone D’Costa for Quepem.
While Congress is seeking to oust BJP from power, it is also facing multi-cornered contests in Goa, especially from Aam Aadmi Party and Trinamool Congress.
