Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Sept 2: The high-level Screening Committee of Congress Party today reviewed the panel of party candidates and cleared the names recommended for forthcoming Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
The crucial meeting, held at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi this evening, lasted for four hours during which each and every Assembly constituency was discussed vis-à-vis the candidates recommended by the State Election Committee, highly placed sources in Congress circles told the Excelsior.
Ajay Makan, AICC general secretary and head of the Screening Committee, chaired the closed door meeting, which was attended by all the members, including Ambika Soni (AICC general secretary and Incharge J&K affairs), S Sarkar (AICC secretary), PCC chief Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz and Congress Legislature Party leader Mohd Sharief Niaz.
While reviewing the panels during discussion, sources said that there was almost consensus among all the screening committee members over the choice of candidates to be recommended for final selection by the all powerful Congress Parliamentary Board, headed by AICC president Sonia Gandhi.
As there was no dispute over the panels with single name of candidate for six constituencies in Jammu division and 22 in Kashmir besides the State Election Committee decision of repeating all the sitting MLAs, the Screening Committee did not take much time in discussion over these 44 seats, sources added.
However, a through discussion was held on the remaining seats and the Screening Committee members reviewed the panels further short listing the number of candidates, mostly two for each constituency, sources claimed.
After its review, sources said that the Screening Committee is going to submit the panel to Congress Parliamentary Board for final selection of party candidates for the Assembly elections in J&K.
The first list of candidates, including sitting MLAs and those who have no competitor in the panel, is likely to be cleared by the Parliamentary Board in next few days, sources hint.
As already reported exclusively by the Excelsior, the State Election Committee on August 26 had finalized the panel of party candidates for the Assembly polls even as no decision was taken on a few seats, including Basohli, Tangmarg, Kulgam and Kargil. The State poll panel decided that all the sitting Congress MLAs would be repeated from their respective constituency while for 28 constituencies, single names were recommended as only suitable candidate. However, for the remaining seats, panels containing two or more candidates were finalized.
Ahead of crucial meeting of the Screening Committee at New Delhi, sources said that Ajay Makan and Mr Sarkar held one to one meetings with the senior Congress leaders from Jammu and Kashmir, including Ministers in the Coalition Government.
Series of these marathon meetings, which were held on Sunday and Monday at the AICC headquarters, Ajay Makan was learnt to have taken feed back on the candidates recommended in the panels by State Election Committee.
According to the sources, the feedback ahead of Screening Committee meeting was taken following an informal complaint lodged by PCC president Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz who alleged that a few names in the panels were intruded by some individuals without any logic but for their vested interests.
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