Congress completes candidate selection for assembly election

New Delhi: Union Programme Implementation Minister G.K. Vasan's group got more than 50 per cent of Congress party tickets for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections on May 8.

Vasan will spearhead the Congress campaign in Tamil Nadu, along with Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi will hit the campaign trail in the state after the Congress party's election manifesto is released in the next three to four days.

The party central leadership's pointperson for Tamil Nadu M. Veerappa Moily produced a balanced list, which gave adequate representation to all the party groups in the state. Sonia has cleared the list.

A notable inclusion is D. Yashoda, who was the party legislative wing's deputy leader and three-time MLA from Sriperumbudur, where former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated.

Yashoda's name had been put on a list referred by the party's top panel for Sonia's clearance.

Five sitting MLAs have been dropped to accommodate new faces. The party's trade union wing did not find any representation, significant in the wake of the a revolt in the trade union with a sizeable section joining the ruling party.