Congress’ first list of candidates by March 15
Our Correspondent
Itanagar: With parliamentary and Assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh round the corner, the Congress in the State is all set to announce the first list of candidates by March 15.
“The steering committee of the State unit of the party has already recommended the names of the candidates for the two Lok Sabha seats in the State to the central election committee of the party for approval and hopefully we will announce the names before March 15,” Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Takam Sanjoy told mediapersons here.
He however refused to divulge the names of the candidates for the two Lok Sabha seats – Arunachal East and Arunachal West.
Sanjoy added that about 50 per cent names of candidates for 60 Assembly seats have been finalized and the list has been forwarded to party’s high command for approval.
“After approval of the names, we will announce the list of candidates in phased-manner. The first list of candidates will be announced before March 15,” he said.
When asked if BJP MLAs who will be denied party tickets, will get Congress ticket if approached, Sanjoy categorically said that majority of the present BJP MLAs were from Congress but the Saffron party hijacked them later.
“Our doors are open for them. We are trying to end the ruling party phobia among the candidates who are running for tickets from the ruling party,” Sanjoy said.
On pre-poll alliance with other parties, the PCC chief said party president Rahul Gandhi had directed all the States to go for alliance with anti-BJP parties by sharing a few seats so that anti-BJP votes are not divided.
“We will announce names of candidates for 50 per cent seats by March 15 and the rest will be announced later after discussions with like-minded parties for seat sharing,” Sanjoy added.
The Congress at present has three MLAs in the house of 60 while, ruling BJP has 48, National People’s Party (NPP) has 7 and Independent two.
During 2014 Assembly elections, the Congress had won 42 seats while the BJP succeeded in 11 seats, Peoples’ Party of Arunachal (PPA) won 5 seats besides two Independents.
Also read: Arunachal news
