NEW DELHI, March 13 - Playing safe, the Congress is likely to renominate majority of its sitting MLAs barring five or six �tainted MLAs� for the ensuing Assembly elections in Assam, a senior AICC leader said.
With the arrival of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and PCC president Anjan Dutta in the national capital, the AICC�s screening committee headed by former Union minister Kamal Nath began its marathon sitting. The five-member screening committee includes Zuber Khan, general secretary in-charge Dr C P Joshi besides Gogoi and Dutta.
The meeting held at India Habitat Centre here was continuing till the time of filing of this report. The screening committee will prune the list of candidate forwarded by the State election committee, while the Central election committee headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi is likely to meet on Tuesday to finalise the list of candidates.
Sources said that the list Anjan Dutta had presented before the screening committee included 32 Assembly constituencies having two-member panels of names, while one constituency had three names and the rest of the constituencies have single names, majority of which are held by the sitting MLAs.
The Chief Minister is likely to contest from Titabor constituency from where he has filed his application for re-nomination. AICC sources rejected reports that Gogoi was planning to shift to Jorhat.
The sources hinted that the Congress is planning to go for some change of faces. For instance, the prestigious Guwahati (East) Assembly seat is likely to be cornered by Bobbeeta Sharma. The seat was held by Capt Robin Bordoloi. The Guwahati (West) is also likely to see a change of face. Former Rajya Sabha MP Dwijen Sarmah is in the running for the seat.
Meanwhile, Congress aspirants have made a beeline to Delhi pitching camps to lobby for tickets. Most of the candidates are approaching local contacts for appointment with Kamal Nath, Dr Joshi and secretary Avinash Pandey besides other senior leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad, Digvijay Singh among others.
