AICC Screening Committee meet on Delhi candidates inconclusive

The first meeting of Congress Screening Committee today could not finalise guidelines for shortlisting candidates for Delhi Assembly polls and instead tasked Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and DPCC president J P Agarwal to finalise criteria for selecting the ticket seekers.
The Screening Committee headed by V Narayanasamy told Dikshit and Agarwal to prepare a panel of candidates for each constituency based on criteria finalised by the two.
Sources said the Screening Committee will have back-to-back meetings on Saturday, Sunday and Monday where the shortlisted candidates finalised by Dikshit and Agarwal will be examined.
They said the Screening Committee will also examine whether the shortlisted aspirants fulfilled the criteria and guidelines for selection of candidates.

The sources said Dikshit and Agarwal were told to finalise panel of candidates for 28 seats where Congress candidates were defeated in last assembly polls.
"No decision on whether almost all sitting MLAs will be considered for tickets has been finalised. Dikshit and Agarwal will have the option of suggesting panel of candidates for constituencies where there is a sitting MLA," said a source.

Besides, Narayansamy, other members of the Screening Committee include Bhubaneshwar Kalita, Shakeel Ahmed, J P Agarwal, Dikshit and Kuldip Nagra.
The 27-member Election Committee in its three meetings had failed to finalise a list of probable candidates following differences among the members and left it to the Screening panel to shortlist the ticket aspirants.

Dikshit was in favour of giving tickets to all sitting MLAs barring those facing criminal charges but some Election Committee members opposed her views arguing that it will defeat Rahul Gandhi's call for giving voice to grass root workers in selection of candidates.
Around 1,600 Congress men have applied for tickets.
Sources said the list of probable candidates will be sent to AICC Central Election Committee headed by Sonia Gandhi which is likely to meet on October 22 and 23.