Cong to announce candidates 3 months before Assembly polls

BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh Congress unit will announce its candidates three months before the Assembly elections, to be held in November this year.

"The party candidates for the constituencies where there is no dispute would be announced three months prior to the polls," state Congress unit media department chairman Manak Agarwal said.

A decision to this effect was taken yesterday in New Delhi at a meeting chaired by Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and attended among others by the party's Madhya Pradesh unit president Kantilal Bhuria and Leader of Opposition in state Assembly Ajay Singh, he said.

Ajay Singh had said last week that "it will be in the interest of the party to declare the candidates well in advance as this will also give them sufficient time for campaigning."

The candidates for the seats where there was some dispute would also be announced well before the elections, Agarwal assured.

Corruption would be the main issue for the elections in which the Congress is confident of dislodging the BJP from power in the state, he said.

A meeting of party office-bearers from all the districts of the state would be held here on March 20 to chalk out an action plan keeping the elections in view, he added.