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Sunday, Mar 04, 2007
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Congress list by Tuesday:Digvijay

Special Correspondent

YSR, APCC chief hold meetings with Sonia, others over Council candidates

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Saturday announced that it would declare the party candidates for the Legislative Council polls by March 6 even as Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and State Congress chief K. Kesava Rao held three rounds of meeting here.

Dr. Reddy, who arrived here on Friday night, remained closeted with AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh to finalise the 19 candidates who would be elected to the Council by the Assembly. March 7 is the last day for filing of the nominations for the polls to be held on March 17.

Later in the evening, the entire team had a meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Mr. Digvijay Singh told correspondents that the process was on and the list would be declared on Tuesday.

Representation

Earlier, he said the Congress had decided to leave two seats for the Communist Party of India and one seat to its ally, the All-India Majlis-e- Ittehadul Muslimeen.

He said while deciding upon the party candidates, adequate representation to castes, region and contribution of the candidates to the party would be considered. The thrust of the exercise was to ensure that the best candidates were selected.

As for the demand from a section of State leaders that the Congress should not leave any seats for the CPI, Mr. Digvijay Singh said the latter had supported the Congress even during the local bodies elections.

No dispute

Asked about reports of disagreement between the Central leadership and the State Congress chief over the choice of some candidates, Mr. Digvijay Singh insisted that there was complete unanimity in the party.

To a question whether at least one-third of the party candidates would be women, the AICC leader said fair representation would be given to the section. Whether it would be too close since the announcement would be just a day ahead of close of nomination, Mr. Digvijay Singh said since the papers had to be filed in Hyderabad, there would be no problem on that count.

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