PEC clears Congress candidates’ lists

Bhubaneswar(07/03/2019): The Pradesh Election Committee (PEC) of the Congress on Wednesday cleared lists of MP and MLA candidates and sent the names to All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Rahul Gandi for his final approval. Congress in-charge for Odisha TS Singh Deo said that the PEC has cleared the candidates’ lists for all 147 Assembly and 21 Lok Sabha seats of the state.

The final lists would be published after scrutiny by the AICC Screening Committee and approval by the high command, he said. All 25 PEC members, including AICC general secretary Jitendra Singh and PCC president Niranjan Patnaik, nine permanent invitees and five special invitees were present at the meeting.

Singh Deo further stated that priority has been given to youths, women and those having winning perspectives while selecting the candidates.

Earlier in the first phase, names of 44 candidates, including all the sitting party MLAs and a few senior party leaders had been cleared. The candidates for Lok Sabha seats are Bhadrak-Ananta Sethi, Bargarh-Sanjay Bhoi, Balasore- Nabajyoti Patnaik, Cuttack-Panchanan Kanungo/ BijayalaxmiSahoo, Dhenkanal-KP Singh Deo, Balangir-Smarendra Mishra/Laxman Kumar Meher, Kendrapara-DahranidharaNaik, Nabarangpur- Pradeep Majhi, Koraput-Purushottam Gomang/ Mary Soren/ Saptagiri Ulaka, Jagatsingpur- Bibhu Prasad Tarai, Sundergarh- George Tirkey/Hemananda Biswal, Berhampur-Deepak Patnaik/ TirupatiPanigrahi, Puri-Amaya Patnaik/Sucharita Mohanty, Sambalpur- Sarat Patnaik/Amar Pradhan, Keonjhar-Haramahon Soren/BinitaMajhi and Kalahandi- Bhakta Charan Das/Jagannath Patnaik .