The Hindu : Cong. clears 83 candidates for Gujarat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 14, 2002

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Cong. clears 83 candidates for Gujarat

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV. 13. The Congress appears to have gingerly crossed the initial leg of finalising its candidates for the Gujarat Assembly elections. It promised to release the first list of its candidates tomorrow.

By the time the Central Election Committee meeting broke up last night, the party had managed to clear the names of 83 of its nominees. Today, members of the screening committee for Gujarat and senior party leaders from the State were closeted together at Pranab Mukherjee's house trying to resolve the conflicting claims of the State leaders. The final list of candidates, party leaders say, will be finalised at the CEC meeting on November 16.

Though most of the 53 sitting MLAs were being renominated, the party has also decided to drop a couple of its sitting legislators. Given the high stakes of the elections, the guiding principle appears to be winnablity, and leadership was not averse to replacing some of its MLAs.

Modi defers finalisation of list

PTI reports from Vadodara:

In an apparent indication of a tussle within the State BJP over the distribution of tickets for the coming Assembly elections, the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, has said that the list of candidates cannot be finalised on November 16 as announced by the central leadership. ``I have informed the central leaders that November 16 does not suit us,'' Mr. Modi said.

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