From CK Nayak
New Delhi: The Central Election Committee of Congress may announce candidates for two Meghalaya Lok Sabha seats on Friday since election dates have already been announced on Wednesday leaving hardly a month for filing of nomination and campaigning.
According to party sources, the CEC on Tuesday night had its first meeting where the CEC discussed about 100 seats in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and some north-eastern states other than Meghalaya.
The CEC is likely to meet again on Thursday and the day after to clear candidates for most of the seats, sources said on Wednesday.
The AICC General Secretary in-charge of Meghalaya Luizinho Falerio is returning from Goa on Friday and the Chairman of the Screening Committee V Narayanswamy is in the capital.
The screening committee had already met once along with MPCC chief DD Lapang and CLP leader Dr Mukul Sangma.
Efforts to convene the meeting again did not materialise since Falerio fell ill and both the state leaders left after waiting in the capital. Now with Meghalaya Assembly in session from Friday it is doubtful if both of them can come back again to attend the screening committee meeting.
Earlier the PCC and the AICC had decided to discuss the candidature for the two parliamentary seats in Meghalaya after elections to three district councils in the State are over. But now in the absence of coordination and announcement of elections with the hill state facing polls in the early part there might not be any more meeting of the screening committee, sources confided.
It is also possible that the CLP leader and the PCC President would be consulted over phone after the return of Falerio, sources added.