Team Herald
PANJIM: Congress on Thursday said it will declare the names of candidates in non-disputed constituencies first, which will be by the first week of December even before the 2017 election dates are announced.
The Goa Pradesh Election Committee, chaired by All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary and Goa desk in-charge Digvijay Singh, met Thursday evening and the first round of discussions were held on the probable candidate lists submitted by the North and South Goa district committees. The election committee will meet again on Friday to scrutinize the list constituency wise.
Speaking to media persons post the meeting, State Congress President Luizinho Faleiro said, “Congress believes in declaring the candidates much in advance. But when there is more than one name, it becomes really difficult to finalize the name easily. So in the first phase, we will declare names of those where there is a consensus,” Faleiro said.
The former Chief Minister said that the district committees have submitted names of 113 probable candidates of which 60-70 percent are new faces. “As promised by me, we will ensure that more young and new faces are fielded this election,” he said.
Thursday’s meeting, the third of the Pradesh election committee, was attended by only two MLAs – Digambar Kamat and Chandrakant Kavalekar. The meeting finalized the criteria and guidelines for shortlisting the candidates.
“From Friday, we will begin the scrutiny process of candidates in each constituency. Once the names are shortlisted, they would be forwarded to the Central Election Committee that will constitute a screening committee to finalize the candidates,” he said, explaining the procedure.
Congress had earlier said that it would grant tickets to all its sitting MLAs while introducing new faces in the other constituencies. The party is also firm on the view that party leaders who were expelled or have been indicted in criminal or corruption cases would not be entertained.
Earlier, AICC general secretary Singh said that wherever the party finds a consensus it will clear the names as soon as possible and others will be kept as a panel. “We have started the process and will follow the procedure as laid down in the Constitution of the Congress party,” he said.
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Those who want an alliance, submit in writing: Digvijay
Maintaining that party is preparing to fight in all 40 Assembly constituencies, AICC general secretary and Goa desk in-charge Digvijay Singh said that those who want to form a pre-poll alliance with the party should submit a proposal in writing. “We are preparing to fight all 40 seats. But at the same time anyone who wants to have an alliance with us must at least give in writing. No one has submitted a proposal,” he said. Singh said that the decision on alliances is not taken by the State unit but by AICC. Parties like Goa Forward and NCP have expressed their desire to have an alliance with Congress for the 2017 polls.
