Arunachal Congress set to unveil first list of candidates next week

The Congress in Arunachal Pradesh Friday said it will release the first list of candidates for the Assembly and Lok Sabha seats by March 15. Elections will be held simultaneously for the 60-member Assembly and two Lok Sabha seats in the state later this year.

"The steering committee of the party's state unit has recommended names of candidates for the two Lok Sabha seats to the Central Election Committee for approval. Hopefully, we will announce the names before March 15," Arunachal Pradesh Pradesh Congress Committee president Takam Sanjoy said. For the 60 Assembly seats, he said, around half of the candidates have been finalised and the list has been forwarded to the high command for approval, he said.

"After approval of the names, we will announce the list of candidates in a phased manner. The first list will be announced before March 15," he said. The remaining seats would be announced after completing talks with like-minded parties, the state Congress chief said.

He said AICC president Rahul Gandhi had directed all the states to go for an alliance with anti-BJP parties by sharing a few seats so that anti-BJP votes are not divided. Asked if BJP MLAs will be given tickets if they approach the party, Sanjoy said those MLAs had actually been from the Congress but the saffron party hijacked them. "Our doors are open for them," he said.

During the 2014 Assembly election, the Congress had won 42 seats but now it has only three because of defection. The ruling BJP, which had bagged 11 seats then, currently has 48.

(With inputs from agencies.)