Congress' CEC meets to finalise candidates for Maharashtra elections

The Congress' Central Election Committee met here on Monday to finalise candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly polls.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Congress general secretary (In-charge, Organisation) K C Venugopal, among others, attended the meeting at the AICC headquarters.

The CEC meeting for Maharashtra was to take place Sunday evening but was postponed with party leaders citing various reasons including Karwa Chauth and holding of meeting for Jharkhand polls as well on the same day.

Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said the Maha Vikas Aghadi -- comprising Shiv Sena (UBT), the Congress and Sharad Pawar's NCP (SP) -- has reached consensus on 210 of the 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra, which is a "significant achievement".

The aim is to ensure the defeat of forces looting Maharashtra, he said in a swipe at the ruling alliance comprising Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena, the BJP and Ajit Pawar-led NCP.

"We have arrived at a consensus on 210 seats. It is a significant achievement. We aim to contest polls as a joint force and we will defeat the forces looting Maharashtra," Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP and key strategist for the Shiv Sena (UBT), told reporters.

The Congress' panel for screening candidates for the Maharashtra Assembly polls had cleared names on 62 seats last week for consideration of the CEC.

The party has announced the candidature of Ravindra Chavan -- the son of Vasantrao Chavan, who passed away in August this year, necessitating the by-election on the Nanded parliamentary constituency.

In the wake of tensions between the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress over seat-sharing for the Maharashtra assembly polls surfacing, Congress' state in-charge Ramesh Chennithala on Saturday had met former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

The Election Commission last Tuesday announced that Maharashtra will vote in one phase on November 20 to elect its 288-member Assembly.

Jharkhand will go to polls in two phases on November 13 and 20.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced at a press conference here that the counting of votes for the polls in the two states will be held on November 23, a day before the current Maharashtra Assembly completes its term.