CM aspirants land Cong in a fix

The first list of 16 Congress candidates for the Haryana state assembly polls has been finalised, though the party is likely to put out the offical list only on Friday.

The screening committee of the AICC met for over eight hours today and decided to give as many as 10 out of thse 10 seats to sitting Congress MLAs. Six other seats finalised today have been promised to "senior party leaders" sources said.

Ticket distribution, however, seems like the least of the Congress' worries, with nearly three chief ministerial candidates in the fray, lobbying is going on at a furious pace. Among them are senior leader and former PCC chief Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who led a huge rally in the state a couple of days ago.

Challenging him is the new Haryana Congress Pradesh Commitee chief Randeep Singh Surjewala, who has almost claimed the Narwana assembly seat for himself where his rival is to be state chief minister, INLD's Om Prakash Chautala. Enough, supporters say, to back his claim to be the next Congress chief minister of the state.

The third main contender is veteran Bhajan Lal, who feels that he still has one more inning to go as Harayana chief minister.

Significantly, his son, Kuldeep Singh Bishnoi had defeated former rival Bansi Lal's son Surinder Singh and Chautala's son, Abhaya Chautala in the recent Lok Sabha polls from Bhiwani.

On the talks whit the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha ( JMM) in that state, the Congress is said to be at an advanced stage of negotiations.

Amidst rumors today that the Union Coal Minister Shibu Soren might had offered to resign from the Central Government to take over the top post Jharkhand, the Congress coyly admitted to be in agreement with any decision that would serve the interests of the state best.

The Congress is also in touch with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Left parties to finalise the seat sharing arrangement in Bihar. Congress sources said that they were keenly watching what Janata Dal (United ) leader Nitish Kumar's next moves would be before settling on any figure for the Congress.

"Nitish Kumar is at the moment posturing. Though he might be talking on the secular parties, at the same time he is also bargaining with the other side," a source said.

The final picture of seat sharing in Bihar is likely to emerge only after the JD(U) decides which way it will go.