Assembly polls: Congress draft list of candidates to be prepared by March 1

Thiruvananthapuram: KPCC President V. M. Sudheeran has asked Congress district level subcommittees to forward draft list of possible candidates for the Assembly elections by February 29.

The KPCC president announced this after a meeting of the subcommittees formed to conduct preliminary review of possible candidates on Wednesday.

Three-member committees had been formed at the district level to prepare the draft list. This committee has the DCC president as convener and the KPCC general secretary in charge of the district and the KPCC office bearer, who had been given additional charge of civic elections, as members.

They would hold discussions and submit preliminary report on February 28. The KPCC president, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala would meet and finalise the draft list on March 1. This list would be considered by the Congress High Command. After that, the State Election Committee of the party is also to scrutinise the list.

Mr. Sudheeran said that winnability and acceptability among public would be the general criteria for selection of the candidates. There was no basis for reports about Congress candidates list by certain media. The process of selection had only been started.

Congress leaders had been prohibited from making public statements about Congress or UDF candidates. Seats sharing talks with UDF constituents would be completed as early as possible.

He said that the Congress was not prepared for any talks with BDJS. It is a still born political party.