Imphal, January 21: Nineteen out of the 23 aspiring candidates of Indian National Congress (INC) who have taken the forms for contesting in the forthcoming Lok Sabha election have reportedly submitted their forms to the party office today even as the last date of issuing and submission of forms have been extended till 1 pm tomorrow.

Earlier, the last date and timing of issuing and submission of forms was till 6 pm today.

An official source from Congress Bhavan informed that of nine forms issued for the Inner and 14 for the Outer Parliamentary Constituencies, seven aspiring candidates have submitted for the Inner and 12 for the Outer seats along with their bio-datas and the required security deposits today.

The source, however, refused to disclose the names of the aspiring candidates who have submitted their forms by saying that MPCC president and Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh had given strict directive to keep their names under wraps till 1 pm tomorrow.

According to information received by the press former Minister AS Arthur and present GAD Minister in the SPF Government Francis Ngajokpa were among those who submitted forms today for contesting in the election from the Outer Parliamentary Constituency.

While chairman of Public Grievance Cell Salam Angou, former Rajya Sabha MP W Angou, Youth Congress president Kumari L Tilotama Devi and Elangbam Kunjakishore were among those who submitted forms for contesting for the Inner seat.

TS Gangte and Morung Makunga have already applied for contesting the Outer seat yesterday.

The source further informed that a meeting of the party's Election Committee presided by party president and Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh would be held tomorrow for screening the forms and the list would be sent to the Central INC Committee on January 23 for approval.

The names of the selected candidates would be announced after dissolving the Parliament by issuing an election notification, the source said.

Meanwhile, another source said that the Congress leaders are putting pressure on their CPI counterparts to agree to the proposal to field Congress candidates as consensus candidates of the SPF from both the Inner and the Outer Parliamentary seats.

An important Congress leader informed that the High Command of AICC have also given instruction to MPCC for putting up Congress candidates from both the seats and MPCC have taken a decision in this connection accordingly.

Admitting that the CPI had strongly proposed for choosing a party candidate as the consensus candidate of the coalition SPF Government for contesting election for Inner seat, the Congress leader said that a clear picture as to who would be chosen as the consensus candidate would emerge within a day or two.

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