First list of candidates by June-end: Gujarat Congress chief

Gujarat Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki today said the first list of party's candidates for Assembly elections would be out by June-end.
"Congress has started gearing up for polls in Gujarat, which are due later this year. The party would soon form election committee and declare the first list of candidates with 40 to 50 names by the end of this month," Solanki said here.
To a question about senior Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela's role in the campaign amid rumours that he is unhappy and may quit Congress, Solanki said, "Vaghela is our senior leader. All of us Congressmen are working to strengthen the party in Gujarat."

Solanki also condemned recent incident of public killing of a calf by youth Congress workers in Kerala. Congress will support both the state and the Union government on the issue of cow protection, he said.
At the same time, he said, the BJP government is misleading people on the issue. "It was Congress which enacted a law to protect cows when Chhabildas Mehta was chief minister of Gujarat in 1995," he said.