THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Congress, the lead partner in ruling United Democratic Front, has expedited the process of finalising its list of candidates for May 16 Assembly polls and is likely to announce the names by first week of April.
"Preparations are progressing in such a manner to declare the list of UDF candidates by first week of April," Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who is also the Chairman of Ruling Front, told PTI here today.
Congress election committee meeting to be held here tomorrow would finalise the list of party candidates.
However, the list would be released by party high command in Delhi, Chandy said. The state party leaders would be going to Delhi on March 28 to hold talks with the high command on election issues, he said.
Besides Chandy, KPCC President V M Sudheeran and Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala are the other members in the Congress election committee.
Asked whether certain controversial decisions on land taken by the government would affect the prospects of UDF in the polls, Chandy said doubts on the issues have been cleared.
"Some of the decisions have been withdrawn and in other cases clear explanation has been given," he said.
The government was under attack for its orders issued in the first week of this month which gave sanction to an Eco-Tourism project in 420 acres of land at 'Methran kayal backwater' paddy fields at Kumarakom village in Kottayam district and for super speciality medi city project in 47 acres of paddy land at Kadamakuddy in Kochi.
However, later the government revoked the two controversial orders that accorded sanction to two projects that required reclamation of 'kayal backwaters' and paddy fields.
On the charge that the government had excluded Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau matters related to top functionaries including the chief minister and ministers from the ambit of Right to Information Act, Chandy had yesterday stated that the allegations were "baseless".