BHUBANESWAR: Congress has deferred the date for submission of the probable list of candidates for the Assembly and Lok Sabha seats by the presidents of the district Congress committees (DCCs) to November 20 as the latter are yet to submit their recommendations.
President of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Sarat Pattanayak had asked all DCCs to submit the probable list by November 10. Sources, however, revealed that the list has come for only around 40 to 50 Assembly seats. Recommendation of names has come only for seats where probable candidates have already been given the go-ahead to prepare for the election.
Acute factionalism at the district level and a lack of credible candidates at many places seem to have delayed the process of compiling of the list of candidates at many places. Sources said except for undivided Koraput and some western Odisha districts, the Congress is still struggling to get a solid foothold despite the holding of padayatras and other programmes.