Congress candidates’ selection put on hold

JAIPUR: The visit of AICC chief Sonia Gandhi may have led the partymen gearing  up with pre-poll activities, but the event seems to have hampered the selection process for the Assembly candidates with most of the Pradesh Election Committee (PEC) members deciding to hold the recommendations for the time being.

While most of the leaders cited preoccupation with preparatory work as the main reason for delay in sending the names, it is learnt that some are still hopeful that the party high command may make some “amendments” in the guidelines particularly those regarding age bar and margin of votes.

In a recently held meeting of PEC, the state party chief C P Joshi had asked the members to follow the guidelines which he claimed is aimed at encouraging the young and promising leaders who have been consistently  involved with the party's welfare
activities.

However, this has left a section of the leaders and their supporters annoyed. These leaders have decided to take up the issue with the central leadership.

Soon after the PEC meeting last week, Joshi had said that the members would give the names of their candidates, in a day or two. However, party leaders are hopeful that the list would be out well in time. The first list is likely to be released any time after second week of September, they said.