Bhopal: Congress may first declare its candidates for the assembly constituencies, considered weak by the party, in the poll-bound Madhya Pradesh.
The party may announce its candidates in 100 out of 230 assembly seats in the state in the first list, a senior party functionary told this newspaper here on Wednesday.
The screening committee of the party met in Delhi on Wednesday to discuss cases of prospective candidates for these 100 assembly seats, he added.
“We have discussed names of prospective candidates for 100 assembly seats of Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday. The deliberation will continue on Thursday”, state Congress president and former chief minister Kamal Nath who attended the screening committee meeting in Delhi, said.
Of these 100 assembly seats, 66 have been identified as BJP strongholds where Congress failed to win in the last three assembly elections.
Congress veteran and former chief minister Digvijay Singh had toured all these 66 assembly constituencies in the last six months to assess the strength and weakness of the party in these seats.
He had interacted with the local Congress leaders and workers during his tour to these constituencies.
Mr Singh has recently submitted his report to Mr Nath detailing the ground situation in the 66 assembly constituencies, a senior party leader told this newspaper, unwilling to be quoted.
“We are not in a hurry to declare candidates’ list. We will follow the due process of selection of candidates, fixed by the party”, the party leader said.
Sources disclosed that the party was waiting for the second list of candidates of BJP, which is speculated to be declared in coming days.
BJP has already declared its first list of 39 candidates three weeks ago.
