The Hindu : Congress finalises 80 p.c. names for polls

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 20, 2003

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Other States - Madhya Pradesh

Congress finalises 80 p.c. names for polls

New Delhi Oct. 19. The Congress screening committee has finalised a majority of candidates for the forthcoming assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh but consensus eluded a decision on about 40 names.

Talking to reporters after the meeting here last night, party General Secretary Ambika Soni said the committee had arrived at a consensus on 80 per cent of the names and would submit its list to the central election committee in a day or two.

The central committee is expected to meet in the first week of next month.

Sources said owing to differences between senior state leaders, names for about 36 seats could not be finalised.

Meanwhile, The Chief Minister Digvijay Singh denied rumours about a possible electoral alliance between the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Madhya Pradesh.

The meeting of the selection committee, headed by senior party leader G. Venkatswami, was held on Friday and Saturday and was attended by Mr. Singh, MPCC president Radhakishan Malviya and senior leader Pranab Mukherjee among others.

However, senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad was not ble to attend due to ill health while Mr Kamal Nath had to leave for Chhindwara for some urgent work.

Sources said differences had cropped up between Mr. Singh and local MP Jyotiraditya Scindia over names of canidates in the Gwalior-Chambal area. Mr. Scindia was asked to attend yesterday's meeting to iron out these differences. The screening committee had on Friday called party observer from the Gwalior-Chambal region Pawan Bansal in a bid to try and resolve the issue.

The committee also held a meeting on the issue last week.

Meanwhile, in view of the screening committee meeting, electoral hopefuls have gathered in strength at the Madhya Pradesh Bhawan here, among them Assembly Speaker Sriniwas Tiwari.

Several MPs and MLAs too are camping in the national capital worried at indications that they might not be given tickets and are busy trying to `woo' senior leaders. Elections to the 230-member State Assembly are slated to be held in December this year.

-- UNI

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Congress finalises 80 p.c. names for polls