Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday chaired a meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee to finalise candidates for the upcoming Bihar Assembly polls.

The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other members of the CEC, which is the apex body of Congress to decide candidates for elections.

The party, which is going it alone in the all the 243 seats, is set to announce the list of candidates in a day or two.

Congress, which ruled the state for four decades, has not been able to form a government on its own in the last 20 years.

The party’s screening committee headed by AICC general secretary in-charge for Bihar, Mukul Wasnik is learnt to have finalised names of candidates.

The party’s screening committee meeting spanned over almost a week starting from 14th September and held detailed deliberations on every seat given the fact that there are at least ten serious contenders for each of the seats.

The Pradesh Election Committee of the party had earlier sent its list to the AICC after a two-day meeting in Patna over a week back.

Others who attended the CEC meeting included Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A K Antony, Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel, AICC general secretary B K Hariprasad and Wasnik.