THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
The Congress will announce its candidates for the Lok Sabha tickets as well as the by-polls in Goa in the next 5-7 days, president of the Goa Congress Girish Chodankar said on Saturday.
The state election committee held a meeting at the Congress headquarters on Saturday where several MLAs were present. But Chodankar insisted that nothing had been finalised, but that they had tried to shortlist three candidates from each constituency.
When asked if the Congress candidates were likely to be young or experienced, Chodankar didn't give the party's choice away, saying, "As per our party's Delhi policy, we want experienced people. But we also want young people. Just to please someone we can't chose a young candidate."
He also added that like a family, the party needed elderly, middle-aged people, youth, and children.
When asked about the women's wing demand for equal representation for women, Chodankar said that the party would be "happy to give both the seats to women, if we have good capable women who can represent the party in both districts."
The Congress will announce the names of its LS candidates before announcing names of bypoll candidates. He also expressed that the political situation in Goa could be unpredictable as nobody, "not even those in the government" knew what was going to happen.
"We are fighting against a government and party where nobody knows what's happening, even those from the government," he said, adding that three scenarios were likely: suspended animation of the assembly, dissolution of the assembly or by-elections in the three constituencies.
"We don't know what they're going for, but the way they're avoiding these by-elections, anything can happen. Those in the government are asking us what's going to happen," he said, adding, "Even the party president and cabinet ministers are clueless. We have to be watchful."
Chodankar also said there were no frontrunners identified for the Mapusa by-polls so far.
Seven candidates in each district had submitted their names as prospective candidates for Congress for the upcoming LS polls. The name of Chodankar was also doing the rounds for either of the tickets. Former CM Francisco Sardinha and former Union Minister Ramakant Khalap are also in the running for South and North tickets respectively.
