New Delhi, Sep 30 (IANS): With Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh inching closer, the Congress is likely to release its first list of candidates after October 5 as part of its strategy, sources said on Friday.

A Congress source told IANS that the preparations for the Assembly elections are in full swing and the names of the candidates have been finalised, which will be released by the party at the perfect time.

The source said that the party would release its first list of candidates after October 5 as it is expected that by then, the poll schedule will be announced by the Election Commission.

The source further said that party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will be in the state on October 5 to address a massive public meeting, and her feedback will be sought before the announcement of the final list.

The party has held two meetings of the Screening Committee in the national capital to shortlist the candidates for the elections.

The party has received over 3,500 requests from aspiring candidates, who want to contest in the Assembly elections on Congress ticket, the source elaborated.

Meanwhile, former party president Rahul Gandhi will address a public meeting in the Kala Pipla Assembly seat on Saturday.

The BJP has already announced two lists of candidates for the upcoming elections. In its second list, the ruling party has named three Union Ministers besides four other sitting MPs. The second list of 39 candidates was released on Monday, hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a public meeting in Bhopal.

The list also includes the name of BJP's National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya.

The three Union Ministers named in the list are Minister of State for Food Processing Industries and Jal Shakti, Prahlad Singh Patel, from Narsinghpur; Agriculture Minister and the party’s state election management committee head Narendra Singh Tomar from Dimni-Morena; and Minister of State for Rural Development and Steel, Fagan Singh Kulaste from Niwas.

The four other Lok Sabha members named in the list are Ganesh Singh from Satna, Riti Pathak from Sidhi, Rakesh Singh from Jabalpur-West, and Uday Pratap Singh from Gadarwara.

The Congress has been campaigning aggressively in the state to come back to power and has already announced several guarantees on the lines of its campaign strategy in the Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections.