Panaji, Nov 23 (IANS): Nearly 5,000 Congress party workers will be actively involved in the selection process of candidates in the 40 Assembly constituencies, state Congress president Girish Chodankar said on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference in Panaji, state All India Congress Committee's official in-charge for Goa Dinesh Gundu Rao also said that the party would finalise candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls as "early as possible" so that they get enough time to campaign in their respective constituencies.

"We believe that more people should be involved in the decision making. It is not like other parties where one person decides everything. A total of 5,000 people are involved in this decision-making process," Chodankar told reporters in Panaji.

The top state Congress official also said that the party's blocks in every constituency would be shortlisting a list of candidates, which would then be vetted by the district committees of the opposition party.

"Then, the names will be presented before the Pradesh Election Committee. After this, the names will be sent to the screening committee and then to the central election committee for finalisation," Chodankar said.

He said that the same procedure would be applied for finalisation of candidates in all 40 constituencies which are scheduled to go to polls in February next year.

Asked if alliances with other like-minded parties would disrupt the party's candidate selection procedures, Chodankar said: "Anything (alliance) that happens later on will be decided by the party and the high command. That decision will be taken later".

On the criteria selected by the party for finalisation of candidates, Gundu Rao said: "The candidate should have loyalty to the party, connect with the people of the block, a good reputation and manage the election well and win it. It is a combination. There is no single factor, candidates should be able to win the hearts of the people".