NEW DELHI, Jan 29 � Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde today chaired a meeting of the screening committee to shortlist the candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.
The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, PCC president Bhubaneswar Kalita, general secretary in-charge Dr CP Joshi, secretary Avinash Pandey, among others.
The screening committee is expected to finalise the list of candidates before the party high command puts its seal of approval.
The screening committee is going to work on the list cleared by the State screening committee and PCC executive. With Congress party deciding to renominate most of its sitting MPs, today�s meeting would only decide on candidates for Mangaldai, Nagaon, Tezpur, Silchar and Dhubri seats.
The candidate of Guwahati Lok Sabha Constituency would be decided on the basis of feedback by party workers, as decided by AICC vice president Rahul Gandhi.
The Guwahati seat is among the seats the candidates for which would be decided by party workers.
Sources revealed that for the Mangaldai seat, several stalwarts, including Kirip Chaliha, Rajiv Sarma and Pradyut Bhuyan, among others, are vying for the ticket. For the Tezpur seat, controversial Congress-man, Mani Kumar Subba is in the race. He faces direct challenge from Ripon Bora and Bhupen Bora, said sources.
The screening committee meeting today remained inconclusive. Talking to media persons after the meeting, APCC president Bhubaneswar Kalita said that today�s meeting discussed the seats held by the Opposition parties and the focus would be on youth.
