Cong Screening Committee for Uttarakhand meets

New Delhi, Jan 22 (UNI) The Screening Committee of the Congress for Uttarakhand had a marathon session lasting more than three hours at the AICC Headquarters here today to shortlist the names of candidates for the February 21 Assembly elections.

The Screening Committee, which met in the presence of AICC Incharge of Uttarakhand Moti Lal Vora,is believed to have prepared a panel of two to three names for each of the 7O Assembly seats for final selection by the Central Election Committee.

The Central Election Committee, headed by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and having Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as one of its members,is expected to meet here tomorrow to decide the names of candidates for all the 70 seats.

The Congress,which has presently a strength of 36 MLAs, is going it alone in the Assembly elections,the campaign for which will be led by Chief Minister N D Tiwari. Mr Tiwari ,however,still seems to be reluctant to contest election but has left it to the Congress High Command to take the final decision about him in this regard.

Meanwhile,the Manifesto Committee of the Congress for Uttarakhand, Punjab and Manipur also met at the AICC Headquarters to give final touches to the manifesto for three poll-bound states, according to sources.

UNI