PANAJI: The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Girish Chodankar on Monday reiterated that the party will field candidates for the ensuing Zilla Panchayat (ZP) elections and that talukawise screening of candidates was on.
Chodankar told media persons that the party had appointed senior members for every taluka to screen the probable candidates to contest the ZP elections. Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Leader Digambar Kamat is coordinating with these talukawise committees, who will hold parleys with the respective block Congress committees, he added.
Chodankar said that the file of delimitation and reservation of ZP constituencies was till date lying with the government and had not reached the office of the State Election Commission (SEC).
"We want to contest ZP elections on party lines. But the government is holding the file for reservation of ZP constituencies. The file has now reached the BJP office. The government's intention is clear, they don't want to give time for other parties to select candidates," Chodankar said.
When asked whether the Congress will field tainted candidates, Chodankar said that the party will follow the recent Supreme Court directives. He claimed that the Congress was the only party having minimum elected members having criminal records across the country.