The Congress on Monday finalised the first list of 90 candidates for the lok Sabha polls, but did not disclose the names of either seats or the candidates to ward off any controversies during the Parliament session. Sources said that the formal announcement would be made at the weekend together with the primaries lot of 16 candidates and seats.
Sources said that the 90 names cleared by the Central Election Committee (CEC) are from five States — Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand. As many as 21 names from UP figure in the first list, which according to the sources, includes constituencies like Amethi, Raebareli, Farrukhabad and Firozabad amongst others.
The list was released after a meeting of the party’s CEC attended by party president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Union Ministers and senior party members AK Antony, Janardan Dwivedi, Girija Vyas, Mukul Wasnik, Ambika Soni, Ajay Maken, luizinho Faleiro and BK Hariprasad. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is also a member of the committee, was not present.
The CEC’s first meeting was earlier scheduled last Thursday but had to be rescheduled for Monday in view of the ruckus in Parliament over the Telangana issue. Rahul had announced early this year that the party would announce the names of candidates for the lok Sabha at the earliest. The Congress list comes just a day after Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party announced its first list on Sunday.
“The party will give priority to finalising candidates for those seats which are at present not represented by the Congress. The party plans to finalise most of the candidates by the end of this month. The ticklish issue of seat sharing amongst allies and the Antony Committee’s decision on prospective allies were also discussed in the meeting” sources said. Sources said Commonwealth Games tainted MP Suresh Kalmadi, who was suspended from the party, is lobbying for a ticket for his wife Meera. Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, who had quit in the wake of the Adarsh scam, may figure as the party’s nominee from Nanded in Maharashtra.
Rahul had earlier announced that this time the party would go beyond tradition and give candidates and party workers at least two months to prepare for the elections. Finalisation of candidates for elections at the earliest was a key recommendation of the AK Antony Committee.