Bihar assembly election 2020: Congress set to finalise first list of candidates today

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NEW DELHI: The Congress is expected to finalise the first list of its candidates for the Bihar Assembly election 2020 on Monday (October 5) at the virtual meeting of the party's central election committee.

The central election committee (CEC) headed by party chief Sonia Gandhi is likely to meet on Monday to finalise some of the candidates that the screening panel will recommend.

The Congress Screening Committee on Bihar met in the national capital on Sunday and is learnt to have discussed the names of probable candidates for the upcoming elections in the state. The meeting of the screening panel, headed by Avinash Pande, was attended by Congress in-charge for Bihar affairs Shakti Sinh Gohil, Bihar Congress chief Madan Mohan Jha and CLP leader Sadanand Singh among others.

On Saturday, Congress sealed the seat-sharing deal with the RJD for the upcoming assembly polls under which the grand-old party will contest on 70 of the total 243 seats. RJD, on the other hand, will fight on 144 seats; and the left parties as part of the opposition ‘mahagathbandhan’ or grand alliance will contest 29 seats.

In the 2010 Bihar Assembly Election, Congress had contested on all 243 seats but managed to capture only 4. In 2015 election, Congress, who was part of the Bihar Grand Alliance, contested on 41 seats out of which it won 27. 

The Bihar Assembly election 2020 will be held in three phases on October 28, November 3 and November 7, and the counting of votes will take place on November 10.

The nomination process for the first phase, under which 71 of the total 243 seats will go to polls, began from October 1 and will end on October 8.