Haryana polls: Cong's CEC mulls candidates; first list expected soon

The Central Election Committee (CEC) of the Congress met here on Friday to finalise the party candidates for the upcoming Haryana Assembly polls, with sources saying the first list of nominees could be out "very soon".

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, party general secretary in-charge organisation K C Vennugopal and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, among others, attended the meeting.

Of the 90 Assembly seats in Haryana, the CEC has cleared the candidates' names for 66. However, the Congress is yet to release any list.

The names of candidates for the remaining 24 seats are being deliberated upon by a sub-committee that includes the likes of All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Haryana Deepak Babaria, T S Singhdeo and Ajay Maken.

The Congress is also engaged in seat-sharing talks with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)for the Haryana polls, with hard bargaining going on from both sides.

The Congress has been engaged in he