Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s idea of choosing 15 Congress candidates for lok Sabha polls through the “primary” system on the lines of the United States has met with setbacks as two Union Ministers — Kapil Sibal and Krishna Tirath — opposed the exercise in their constituencies.
The two constituencies — Chandni Chowk and North West Delhi — were removed from the list of 16 lok Sabha seats for “INC Primary” put out on the party website after Sibal’s protest.
Interestingly, two Congress general secretaries — Ajay Maken and Gurudas Kamat — have offered their parliamentary seats for the “primary” system. While Kamat is a five-time party MP from Mumbai, Maken is sitting MP from New Delhi and currently AICC Communication Department chairman.
Maken said on Twitter, “I have offered/requested party to include my constituency for primaries so that the workers/common man can choose their lok Sabha candidate.”
Kamat conveyed to Rahul that his seat should be included in the list of “primary” constituencies. Kamat has represented Mumbai North East four times — 1984, 1991, 1998, and 2004 — in the lok Sabha before he had to shift to Mumbai North West in 2009 due to delimitation.
Responding to the changes in the list of constituencies for the primaries, party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi sought to downplay any controversy. “This is a pilot project in the making.
Necessary adjustments and fine tuning is being done. The concept is important. The detailing will be completed shortly,” Singhvi said at AICC briefing.
Sources said Gurgaon happens to be the new addition to primaries where Congress MP Rao Inderjit Singh exited from the party after making allegations of land scandal against Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
With the deletion of names of two Parliamentary seats, the number of such seats had dropped to 14 from 16. If the constituencies represented by Maken and Kamath are included, the number will be restored and addition of Gurgaon will make it 17.
Under the ‘Primary’ system, a political party or a political alliance nominates candidates for an election by shortlisting through an internal vote. “The senior leaders cited their stature and requested not to put the constituencies through the rigours of primaries. As of now, the two will not go through primaries and only one seat of the seven in Delhi will be reserved for this scheme and another will be Gurgaon in the NCR,” said a Congress leader requesting not to be quoted.
The constituencies, where the candidate selection will be done through the “primary” system now, include Guwahati (Assam), Bhavnagar and Vadodara (Gujarat), Bangalore North and Daskshin Kanara (Karnataka), Indore and Mandsaur (Madhya Pradesh) Aurangabad and Yavatamal-Washim (Maharashtra), Bikaner and Jhunjhunu (Rajasthan) Sant Kabir Nagar and Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) and Kolkata North (West Bengal) and Gurgaon (Haryana).
The Congress is the first national party to bring in such a process in India, the party said on its website. In the AICC meeting on January 17, Rahul said at least candidates for 15 lok Sabha constituencies will be finalised by party workers and they would directly elect candidates. He said that if the experiment works, it would be expanded to legislatures.
