The Central Election Committee (CEC) of the Congress cleared the names of 34 candidates on Monday (September 2,2024) for the upcoming election to the 90-member Haryana Assembly. The list includes 22 sitting Haryana legislators.
The screening panel, headed by Ajay Maken, had given shortlisted names for 49 seats.
Asked if wrestler Vinesh Phogat could be given a ticket to contest the election, All India Congress Committee in-charge for Haryana, Deepak Babaria, said, “You will get clarity on that tomorrow”.
The top election panel, comprising party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, general secretary (organisation) K. C. Venugopal among others, will meet on Tuesday.
“We hope that our list will be issued by day after tomorrow,” Mr. Babaria told reporters after Monday’s CEC meeting. He said criteria such as winnability, clean image of the candidate, feedback from ground survey were among the factors that the screening panel looked at while shortlisting the names.
However, sources said the election panel is yet to take a call on some of the contentious seats and names.
Though Mr. Babaria reiterated his earlier statement that the high command has not asked him to consider the names of any MP, Rajya Sabha member Randeep Surjewala and Lok Sabha member Kumari Selja have expressed interest to contest the Assembly election.
In the faction-ridden Haryana unit, Ms. Selja and Mr. Surjewala are seen as rivals of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and their expressing interest to return to State politics is a sign of leadership tussle.
The Congress, however, played down reports of factionalism and maintained that it is poised to return to power in the State that has witnessed uninterrupted BJP rule since 2014.
Published - September 02, 2024 09:32 pm IST
