Congress to declare candidates for Bihar next week

The Congress central election committee will meet here early next week to decide party candidates for the Bihar assembly polls, party leaders said here on Thursday.

They said the Bihar state election committee will meet on September 20 to recommend candidates on the seats the party is contesting in Bihar.

Congress is contesting the polls to 243-member Bihar assembly in alliance with Janata Dal-United and Rashtriya Janata Dal. According to seat sharing formula announced by the three parties, Congress will contest 40 seats while RJD and JD-U will contest 100 seats each.

The leaders said that the screening committee, which will look at the recommendations of state election committee, was likely to meet on September 21.

Meeting of party's central election committee, which is headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, is likely to take place on September 21 evening, a party leader said.

The party leader said that the three parties were yet to take a final call on the specific seats they would contest.

The notification for the first phase of assembly polls has already been issued in the state and the last date for filing nominations is September 23.

Sources said that the state unit was keen on four rallies by the Congress president and six by party vice president Rahul Gandhi.

Bihar will go for five-phased election between October 12 and end on November 5. The counting of votes will be held on November 8.