NEW DELHI: The Congress party is likely to announce the list of candidates for the 90 assembly seats on Wednesday, said Deepak Babaria, AICC in-charge for Haryana. The state will go to polls on October 5.
Speaking to the media after the meeting of the Central Election Committee to finalise candidates for the Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls, Babaria said that the names of 34 candidates were cleared at Monday’s meeting and the rest will be finalised on Tuesday.
He also said the speculation surrounding Vinesh Phogat would be laid to rest by Tuesday.
“Screening committee submitted a list of 49 candidates. Out of it, 34 names have been cleared. The other 15 names will be deliberated tomorrow,” he said, adding that the names of 22 sitting MLAs have been cleared so far.
When asked whether sitting Parliamentarians will be allowed to contest the assembly elections, the leader said that he hasn’t received any communication from the high command in this regard. Earlier, he said, “Anyone who has the support of the MLAs and party high command can contest for the CM post’.
On a question on the criteria of candidate selection, he said that the committee will review probable candidates who lost two assembly elections in a row.
“Other factors include the winnability of leaders whose names came up in surveys,” he said. Babaria said some names have been sent to the review committee and a call would be taken on those on Tuesday by the panel, which includes the Congress’ Haryana unit chief and the legislature party leader.
Sources said former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s name was on the list approved on Monday. The Election Commission on Saturday deferred the Haryana Assembly poll date to October 5 from October 1, saying the decision was taken keeping in mind a centuries-old festival of the Bishnoi community.
The counting of votes for Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana assembly polls will be held on October 8, the poll body had said.