Guj Cong withdraws second candidate list after NCP tie up

New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday withdrew its second list of 46 candidates for Gujarat assembly polls in the wake of firming up of an alliance with NCP. The list was withdrawn by the AICC without citing any reason within two hours of its release. [caption id=“attachment_532318” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The AICC had released the two lists of candidates after a meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee chaired by Sonia Gandhi. Reuters[/caption] The list was released close on the heels of the first list of 52 candidates which included PCC Chief Arjun Modhvadia and CLP leader Shaktisinh Gohil and a number of sitting MLAs. Congress General Secretary Oscar Fernandes said the AICC move was prompted by the alliance with NCP. Fernandes, who held talks with some central leaders as also state leaders, said the second list would now be released by the AICC on Friday. NCP General Secretary D P Tripathi said that under the alliance worked out with Congress, his party has been allocated nine of the 182 seats in the state to contest. NCP has three sitting MLAs and the seats allotted to it Congress in the last polls were eight. Tripathi said the alliance was forged early today after talks between party leader Praful Patel and Congress leader Ahmad Patel. In the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi was seen having informal consultations with Union Minister C P Joshi and a number of party MPs from Gujarat. Joshi is the head of the AICC Screening Committee for Gujarat. The AICC had released the two lists of candidates after a meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi last evening. Congress is out of power in Gujarat, which was once its stronghold, for the last two decades. PTI