“Whatever would be necessary for winning the elections will be done by the party and going for coalitions is one of them”, opined Chairperson of Congress Screening Committee for the Chhattisgarh polls, Bhubaneswar Kalita. Addressing some selected news persons, Kalita, who is also a Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha from Congress, further, informed that the first list of contestants would be declared in the month of August.
Kalita is in the State capital to gear up the activities among the party to issue tickets to contestants. Citing the instructions from All India Congress Committee Chief Rahul Gandhi, he informed that the first list of candidates of 90% of the assembly segments would be declared by August 15. Screening committee members have begun their work. With stamping of the opinion of screening panel and consent of CGPCC senior leaders, list of contenders will be declared soon, he said.
Kalita, further, clarified the stand of Congress over entering into coalitions. “Every possible effort would be made to win the upcoming elections in the State. For it, making a coalition is one priority”, he said. Notable the Gondwana Gantantra Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are the possible allies of Congress in the state but there are some impediments regarding sharing of seats.
GGP is adamant of contesting from Pali Tanakhar which is a traditional seat of Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee Working President, Ramdayal Uikey. Instead of Pali-Tanakhar Congress is pressing GGP to take the assembly segment of Baharatpur-Sonhat. On the other hand, there is also some difference in opinion about number of seats to be shared with BSP.
Earlier, Kalita also took a meeting of Area Coordinators of all the 90 assembly segments and instructed them to hold meetings with Congress workers from Aug 7 to 15. After taking the ground assessment and views, send report regarding the ‘winnable’ candidates to the CGPCC.
CGPCC Chief Bhupesh Baghel informed the media persons that views of booth level workers would be taken into priority for finalising the tickets of the party contestants.