Karwar: District In-charge Minister R V Deshpande informed that the meeting of the screening committee will be held in New Delhi on April 9 and 10, followed by Congress’ central election committee meeting on April 12 and 13.

The selection of candidates for the assembly election will be finalised in these meetings, and party would announce the list of candidates for all the 224 seats simultaneously on April 15.

Briefing reporters at a resort, near Karwar, on Friday, Deshpande, replying to a question on whether all candidates who had won in last election would get tickets, stated that there was not much scope for changes in the candidates list as far as the district was concerned.

“Anyway, the decision will be taken by the high command,” he quipped.

Several aspirants

On the several aspirants vying for tickets in some constituencies, he said, there was nothing wrong in that. “It is natural to have more ticket aspirants when the party is doing good. A suitable candidate will, however, be chosen after taking all into confidence,” he said.

Questioned whether the Congress Party was lagging behind other parties as far as campaigning was concerned, he said, the meeting of the election committee has already been held, and the committee headed by Veerappa Moily has already finalised the election manifesto of the party.

No confusion

He denied any confusion in the allotment of ticket in the Sirsi constituency.

He said, there was nothing wrong in district unit President Bhimanna Naik and youth leader Nivedith Alva seeking tickets.

“I had requested the party high command to give ticket to Naik in the last elections. But, the high command took a different view. It is the prerogative of the high command as to who should be allotted the ticket, he added.

MLA Satish Sail, MLC S L Ghotnekar, leaders Bhimanna Naik, and others were present.