DPCC chief asks high command finalise MCD candidates early

New Delhi, Mar 10 (UNI) Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee President Ram Babu Sharma today requested the party high command to finalise the list of candidates for the Delhi Municipal Corporation elections at the earliest so that campaigning could be started in earnest.

Mr Sharma met All India Congress Committee General-Secretary In-Charge of Delhi affairs Ashok Gehlot and urged him to clear the air of uncertainty about the candidates as soon as possible so that the party and its workers could promptly get on with the campaigning.

The DPCC chief was accompanied by Union Minister for Urban Development Ajay Maken, city MPs Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler and Krishna Tirath.

The party has decided to select candidates through 'screening committees' in all 12 MCD zones in order to field candidates with good and clean image in the coming polls to the civic body.

Such committees would scrutinise candidates in each of the 272 MCD wards and select one by mutual consensus or come out with a panel of three candidates that would be forwarded to the party's State Election Committee by March 12 for finalisation, he added.

Mr Sharma sought that State Election Committee finalise the list of candidates by March 14 so that the candidates and the party could get down to business immediately thereafter and have maximum time possible for canvassing and door-to-door campaigning.

Last date of nominations is March 17, while the polling is slated for April 5.

Meanwhile, despite Mr Gehlot's appeal to all ticket seekers for the MCD polls not to contact AICC as the show was being run by DPCC, hordes of prospective candidates had descended upon the party head- quarters here.

UNI