No decision on Congress candidates as of now
Friday, 09/12/2016
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=169486&boxid=59046&uid=&dat=2016-12-09
Chandigarh : The much-awaited second meeting of the Congress Election Committee (CEC) in New Delhi drew a blank as the list of candidates could not be released.
The party is to field 117 candidates for the assembly constituencies for Punjab Vidhan Sabha Elections 2017.
Though Congress president Sonia Gandhi presided over the meeting attended by its members including party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, Congress screening committee chairman Ashok Gelhot, in0charge Punjab Congress Asha Kumari, Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh, MP Ambika Soni, Punjab CLP leader Charanjit Singh Channi and others, yet there was no consensus over allotment of tickets to the aspirants including turncoats and other, sources disclosed.
According to party sources, the meeting that started at about 2 pm and lasted for over two hours. It is learnt that the party high command may take some time more to declare the final list of candidates for the Punjab polls.
The first meeting of the CEC was held on December 4, which too had ended with no results. Party insiders claimed to have shortlisted 64 ticket aspirants. The party top brass had decided to release single list of all the 117 candidates after Thursday’s meeting.
After three days of the screen committee meeting, the CEC meeting held on Thursday which too went to disappoint the ticket aspirants.
Veteran Punjab Congress leaders including former PCC presidents Partap Singh Bajwa and S S Dullo along with their men have been objecting to allocation of tickets to turncoats, especially those who joined the Congress after quitting Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in last couple of months.
