Imphal, January 01: The number of aspiring candidates who have applied for party tickets to contest in the forthcoming election to the 60-member 9th Manipur Legislative Assembly has crossed 110 including 40 of them from the Assembly Constituencies of the hills, according to sources from Congress Bhavan here.

Among the aspiring candidates who submitted their applications for the party ticket today include four siting MLAs of Federal Party of Manipur (FPM) from the Assembly Constituencies of the valley, two MLAs of MSCP and former Chief Minister and sitting MLA RK Dorendra who had been elected to the 8th Manipur Legislative Assembly on BJP ticket, sources disclosed.

All the MLAs who have applied for Congress ticket till today which is also the late date of submitting the applications have not become the primary members of the party, sources added.

The applications filed by the ticket seekers would be forwarded to all the block and district committees of the Assembly Constituencies concerned, and the related recommendations and comments are expected to be submitted to the MPCC within January 10.Only after studying the said recommendations and comments, the Election Committee of the party would despatch the names of the probable candidates to the AICC for further recommendations, sources informed, adding that with the nod of the AICC the names of the selected aspiring candidates would be announced in time for filing the nomination papers.

CPI (M) names Khundrakpam AC candidate : With the CPI (M) set to field candidates at Khundrakpam AC and Hiyanglam AC, the party today announced that Namoijam Singhajit will contest from Khundrakpam AC as its candidate.

Singhajit is a member of the State Committee of the party and secretary of Loumi Marup.

The party's candidate for Hiyanglam will be announced within four days time.

Polls training: Secretary of Election Commission of India KF Wilfred would be arriving at Imphal tomorrow to impart training to the Returning Officers (ROs) in connection with the three-phased election to the 9th Manipur Legislative Assembly slated to be held in February.

The training programme would be held at the mini conference hall of the Old Secretariat.