Bhubaneswar: The Congress on Wednesday began the exercise of shortlisting candidates for the upcoming assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the state. All India Congress Committees (AICC) screening committee chairman for Odisha, V D Satheesan and member Naushad Solanki, who reached the state on a three-day visit on Wednesday, discussed with party leaders and aspirants at Bhubaneswar and Berhampur, respectively.Satheesan and Naushad would scrutinise the list of probable candidates for 11 out of 21 Lok Sabha seats and 77 assembly constituencies coming under the 11 parliamentary seats during their stay.The screening committee will again visit in the next few days to finalise candidates for the remaining 10 Lok Sabha seats and 70 assembly constituencies. On day one, Satheesan discussed with several aspirants of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack Lok Sabha seats. On Thursday and Friday, Satheesan is scheduled to screen the aspirants of Puri, Jagatsinghur, Kendrapada and Dhenkanal parliamentary seats.“We will give priority to those, who have been working at the grassroots and are connected to people. Winnability will be the key standard for selection of candidates. Women and youths will be given preference,” Satheesan said, adding “The central election committee will take the final decision on whether or not some leaders, who lost elections in 2009 and 2014, will be considered for tickets.” Sources said it will be a testing time for the party to placate dissidents as each seat has five aspirants for tickets.Congress, which had in June last year announced to finalise tickets for at least 50 assembly seats by August-end, has already missed several deadlines and is hoping to complete the selection of candidates for all 21 Lok Sabha and 147 assembly constituencies by the month-end. After assuming charge of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee in April last year, president Niranjan Patnaik on June 24 had told the media that early selection of names of candidates would provide them adequate time to strengthen their base in respective constituencies.Sources said the recent exit of five key leaders, including three sitting MLAs Naba Kishore Das (Jharsuguda), Jogesh Singh (Sundargarh) and Krishna Sagaria (Koraput) in last few weeks has delayed the selection of candidates.While Naba Kishore had quit the party, Singh and Sagaria were sacked for alleged anti-party activities. Naba Kishore and Singh joined BJD whereas Sagaria joined Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Talks are doing the rounds that the party is struggling to get suitable replacements in Jharsuguda, Sundargarh and Koraput. Another reason for delay in finalisation of candidates is reportedly attributed to the Congress plan of joining hands with the Left parties and subsequent seat-sharing adjustment.

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