Congress likely to release first list of candidates on Friday

Congress state unit president Manikrao Thakare has said that the party has finalised the process of screening of all the 174 seats and will release the first list of candidates on Friday. Meanwhile, the Central Election Committee (CEC) did not meet on Tuesday and is likely to meet on Wednesday or Thursday.

The screening committee for the state met at Mallikarjun Kharge's residence in New Delhi on Tuesday. CM Prithviraj Chavan, Thakare and AICC in-charge for Maharashtra, Mohan Prakash, were present for the along with screening committee in-charge Deepak Bavriya.

While speaking to reporters after the meeting, Thakare said that the first list will be released only after presenting the entire list to the CEC. The party is likely to release the list with prominent leaders included in it, while it would keep the list of constituencies for a later stage, which can be exchanged with NCP. Sources told dna that the seat sharing issue will be now discussed at the highest level between the two parties. After these talks, the second list will be released by clearing the constituencies which NCP is claiming. Thakare said that the party has also taken stock of the situation in the remaining 114 seats. It is significant that these seats are from the NCP quota.