Guj Cong starts process to shortlist probable candidates

Gujarat Congress today started the process of shortlisting probable candidates for the Assembly elections, due later this year.
Party observers held meetings with ticket-seekers in various parts of the state and this would continue for the next two days, state Congress spokesperson Himanshu Patel said.
"We have formed a committee each for all the 182 seats to give hearing to those who have applied for ticket," he said.
As many as 1,570 persons have sought tickets, Patel said.
Each committee would then finalise a panel of five probable candidates for the seat.
"State Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki and other leaders would scrutinise these probable candidates and send a revised list with two to three names per panel to the central leadership. Central leadership would announce the names of final candidates," he said.

Earlier this week Solanki had made it clear that those who have lost Assembly election twice or those who lost by a margin of over 20,000 votes last time would not get ticket.
The opposition party has started the candidate-selection process expecting that elections could be held early.
The Congress is out of power in Gujarat for the last 25 years.