Sonia Gandhi chairs election committee meeting to decide Bihar candidates

Congress president Sonia Gandhi today chaired a meeeting of the party's Central Election Committee to finalise candidates for the upcoming Bihar Assembly polls.

The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other members of the CEC, which is the apex body of Congress to decide candidates for elections.

The party, which is going it alone in the all the 243 seats, is set to announce the list of candidates in a day or two.

Congress, which ruled the state for four decades, has not been able to form a government on its own in the last 20 years.

The party's screening committee headed by AICC general secretary in-charge for Bihar, Mukul Wasnik is learnt to have finalised names of candidates.

The party's screening committee meeting spanned over almost a week starting from September 14 and held detailed deliberations on every seat given the fact that there are at least ten serious contenders for each of the seats. 

The Pradesh Election Committee of the party had earlier sent its list to the AICC after a two-day meeting in Patna over a week back.

Sources said the party will focus on giving tickets to youths and accommodating all sections of society apart from the winnability criteria as Congress has no particular caste or community orientation in the state unlike other parties. 

Others who attended the CEC meeting included finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, defence minister AK Antony, Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel, AICC general secretary BK Hariprasad and Wasnik.