'Draft Congress candidates' list to be ready on March 1'

Thiruvananthapuram: The draft list of Congress candidates for the assembly polls would be ready on coming Tuesday said state party chief V.M. Sudheeran.

At the 2011 assembly polls, the Congress had contested in 82 seats and won 38. This time initial reports suggest they are likely to contest from 88 seats.

The date of the assembly polls to elect the new 140-member Kerala assembly is expected to be announced anytime next week.

Addressing reporters at the state party headquarters after meeting of his party leaders on Wednesday night, Sudheeran said the lower level committees have been asked to submit their list on the 29th of this month and after which it would be wetted by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala and himself.

"Everything will be done as per the guidelines of the party high command and bench marks of candidate selections would include winnability and general acceptability. The draft list of candidates would be ready on March 1. It has also been decided to finalise the seat sharing with the allies of the Congress party at the earliest," said Sudheeran.

He also deplored the CPI-M backed Kairali TV channel and some other media organisations for bringing out the list of Congress candidates, saying this is not good journalism.

"This is not acceptable as we have only started the process of candidate selection. The Congress led UDF is determined that it will retain power and nothing can prevent us from not achieving it," said Sudheeran.

He also asked his leaders to see that they do not make any public statements with regards to candidate selection and also about their allies.