Maharashtra polls: Cong's screening committee clears names on 62 seats, CEC to take place on Oct 20

The Congress' panel for screening candidates for the Maharashtra Assembly polls has cleared names on 62 seats for consideration of the party's central election committee which will hold its meeting on October 20, state unit chief Nana Patole said on Wednesday. He also said the party's screening committee has cleared just one name for the Nanded Parliamentary by-election -- Ravindra Chavav -- the son of Vasantrao Chavan who passed in August this year, necessitating a byelection.

The screening committee meeting here was chaired by Madhusudan Mistry and attended by Congress in-charge for Maharashtra Ramesh Chennithala, Patole, Balasaheb Thorat and AICC secretaries, among others.

Speaking with reporters after the meeting, Patole said, "62 seats have been cleared. We will have a CEC meeting on 20th October."

The meeting comes days after Maharashtra Congress leaders met the party's top brass here with Patole asserting that there are no issues of seat sharing among the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) constituents and the coalition will form the government in the state, overcoming the BJP's "horrible tactics".

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, Patole, Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar and senior leader Balasaheb Thorat attended the meeting on Monday at Kharge's 10, Rajaji Marg residence.

The ruling Mahyuti alliance comprises Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena, BJP and Ajit Pawar-led NCP.

The opposition MVA comprises the Congress, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP).

The Election Commission on Tuesday announced that Maharashtra will vote in one phase on November 20 to elect its 288-member Assembly. Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced at a press conference here that the counting of votes will be held on November 23, a day before the current Maharashtra assembly completes its term.