The Central Election Committee (CEC) of the All-India Congress Committee (AICC), which is supposed to finalise names of candidates for all 21 lok Sabha (lS) seats in Odisha, on Monday decided to announce the final list of names of the lS as well as the Assembly seat candidates jointly by last week of February.
Earlier on Sunday, a meeting of the Screening Committee of the AICC had a prolonged discussion under the chairmanship of Oscar Fernandez in which Pradesh Congress Committee president Jayadev Jena, leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh, Union Minister Srikant Jena and Opposition Chief Whip in Assembly Prasad Harichandan were present.
After the CEC meeting was held, which was attended by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Defence Minister AK Antony, leader of Opposition Singh told mediapersons in Delhi that the CEC decided to announce list of names of lS and Assembly candidates jointly by last week of February as the State and General Elections will be held at a time in Odisha.
The CEC meeting was also attended by PCC president Jena, Singh and Harichandan.