Congress leaders to go into a huddle to finalise candidates list for Goa polls

Panaji, Nov 26: The Congress will start the process of shortlisting candidates for the Goa Assembly polls scheduled for early 2022.

The process for south Goa will take place on November 26-27, while the north Goa district will submit names of probable candidates on November 28 and December 1. On November 30, the Pradesh Election Committee will meet to discuss the already shortlisted names, while the Screening Committee will meet on December 3-4.

In the absence of any alliance at the moment, candidates would be shortlisted for all 40 seats in the Goa Assembly.

The Congress is looking for young and new nominees for the Goa polls, while the party iterated that MLAs who had defected and joined other parties will not be considered.

Elections are due in Goa in February next year.

In the 2017 Goa Assembly polls, the Congress had won the highest 17 seats in the 40-member House restricting the BJP at 13.

However, the BJP allied with regional parties- GFP and MGP- to form a government under the late Manohar Parrikar.

Over years, the Congress' strength dwindled to four as many MLAs switched over to the ruling BJP. Faleiro recently joined TMC.