By IANS,
New Delhi: The Congress central election committee (CEC), chaired by party president Sonia Gandhi, met Wednesday to finalise candidates for the first three phases of the upcoming Bihar assembly elections.
Congress source said that the meeting discussed the recommendations of the party’s screening committee for 140 out of the 243 seats, voting for which will be held in three phases in the state beginning October 21.
The 13-member CEC has Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Defence Minister A.K. Antony among its members.
The meeting was held at Gandhi’s 10 Janpath residence.
The sources said that the CEC finalised names for most of the seats taken up for discussion and the announcement of names is expected to take place over the next two days.
The screening committee will meet again Thursday to consider names of candidates for the last three phase of assembly polls.
The six-phased assembly polls in Bihar will conclude Nov 20.
The screening committee, headed by party general secretary B.K. Hariprasad, met for over three days to give its recommendations for the first three phases of the poll.
While the polling for 47 seats in the the first phase will take place Oct 21, the polling for 45 seats in the second phase will take place Oct 24 and for 48 seats in the third phase Oct 28.
The Congress is contesting all 243 seats in the assembly on its own. The filing of nominations for the first phase of polling begins Sep 27.