Cong holds 1st meeting of screening committee for Punjab Assembly polls

The Congress on Tuesday held the first meeting of its screening committee for the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections and is learnt to have finalised around 70 candidates for polls.

Top Congress leaders of the state attended the meeting which was chaired by party general secretary Ajay Maken.

While Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi was not present as he had a Cabinet meeting in Chandigarh, the committee members held a telephonic conversation with him.

The panel will again meet on Wednesday and finalise the first list of Congress candidates for the polls.

The others who attended the meeting included Congress' in-charge of Punjab Harish Choudhary, the party's state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and head of the campaign committee for the state Sunil Jakhar.

Besides Maken and party secretaries for the state, the other panel members -- Krishna Allavaru and Chandan Yadav -- were also present.

The committee, sources said, have discussed the party candidates for all the assembly constituencies and have arrived at a consensus on around 70 of them.

The names of candidates would be finalised at Wednesday's meeting of the screening committee where Chief Minister Channi would also be present.

It would recommend the names to the party's central election committee, chaired by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, before declaring the candidates. Punjab goes to the polls in the next few months.