Congress finalising nominees for 403 UP seats

Lucknow: Turning a deaf ear to talks of alliance with the Samajwadi Party, the Congress in Uttar Pradesh is working at a breakneck speed to finalise candidates for all the 403 Assembly seats.

The party has finalised the candidature of its 20 sitting MLAs. And UP Congress Committee president Raj Babbar told this correspondent on Friday that candidates for the first three phases have already been finalised. At a marathon meeting of the state election committee that ended around midnight on Thursday, the names were debated upon and finalised. The party has decided to ensure the loyalty of the candidates — especially after the manner in which a number of Congress MLAs crossed over to other parties during the Rajya Sabha elections in June 2016. “We are short listing three names in each constituency and the party high command will take the final selection. We will release the list according to the election phases soon,” Mr Babbar said.

The Congress leader denied of having any knowledge of the possibility of an alliance with any party. Mr Babbar said that discussions have been held on each Assembly seat and there are 8 to 10 claimants for each seat. He said that this time, the party has received a sizeable number of applications from women and youth candidates. The meeting was also attended by Sheila Dikshit.