Haryana polls: Cong's CEC mulls candidates; first list expected soon

The Central Election Committee (CEC) of the Congress met here on Friday to finalise the party candidates for the upcoming Haryana Assembly polls, with sources saying the first list of nominees could be out "very soon".

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, party general secretary in-charge organisation K C Vennugopal and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, among others, attended the meeting.

Of the 90 Assembly seats in Haryana, the CEC has cleared the candidates' names for 66. However, the Congress is yet to release any list.

The names of candidates for the remaining 24 seats are being deliberated upon by a sub-committee that includes the likes of All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Haryana Deepak Babaria, T S Singhdeo and Ajay Maken.

The Congress is also engaged in seat-sharing talks with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)for the Haryana polls, with hard bargaining going on from both sides.

The Congress has been engaged in hectic consultations over the last few days to explore the possibility of an alliance with the AAP for the Haryana polls, even as some of its leaders have expressed reservations over a tie-up with the Arvind Kejriwal-led party.

The sources said the Hooda faction of the grand old party and some other leaders are opposed to a seat-sharing deal with the AAP. According to these leaders, Kejriwal's party does not have much ground in Haryana.

Meanwhile, Olympians Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia, who were at the forefront of the wrestlers' protest against former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, entered the political arena on Friday by joining the Congress with a vow of "not being scared or backing off".

The 90-member Haryana Assembly is scheduled to go to polls on October 5 and the counting of votes will be undertaken on October 8.