The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee Monday said it has finalised the names of at least 44 candidates for the state Assembly elections due next year.
"The Odisha Pradesh Election Committee has finalised the names of 44 candidates in the first phase. The candidates have been selected on basis of winnability and youth," OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik told reporters.
Patnaik said the names of the 44 of the 147 candidates for the Assembly elections, were finalised in a meeting of the Pradesh Election Committee(PEC). He said the list included names of 15 sitting MLAs of the party.
The PEC list will be sent the AICC's screening committee before its final approval by the Congress president.
As many names are making rounds, Patnaik said the formal announcement of candidates would be made after the approval of the party high command.
Meanwhile, party's Koraput MLA Krushna Chandra Sagaria on Monday said has resigned from the post of general secretary of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC). He was last week made the OPCC general secretary after being removed from chairman of the the party's Scheduled Caste Cell.
"I have no intention of quitting the Congress. Rather, I will contest the assembly elections," Sagaria told reporters at Koraput.