Confusion prevailed in Congress circles of Madhya Pradesh over selection of mayoral candidates for 11 municipal corporations for the ensuing urban body elections despite a meeting of the State Election Committee on Sunday.
Though the Congress sources claimed that consensus had been built on few names but announcement had been withheld due to ‘fear of revolt’.
It is expected that the State Congress would announce the names of candidates late in the night on Monday or by Tuesday noon. However, there were talks in the State Congress office that candidates for Burhanpur, Sagar, Dewas, Khandwa, and Ratlam had been finalised.
According to All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary Sajjan Singh Verma who is playing a key role in selection of the candidates the local legislators have been given rights for selection of candidates with condition that it would be their responsibility to make candidates victorious.
But the conditions appeared to be antilogy when discussion was held with the central observers who reached here on Monday. According to AICC secretary in-charges for the State Sanjay Nirupam and Rakesh Kaliya that opinion of legislators would be taken but the final decision would only be taken by the state election committee as the party has not provided the power of finalizing the candidates to the legislators.
While the senior Congress leader of the state Rameshwar Neekhra said that we have formulated a policy and all the decisions would be taken according to that. Another senior leader Sundarlal Tiwari though agreed with the statement of AICC secretaries’ duo.
Te confusing scenario thus makes it clear that the Congress has failed to come up with any fixed policy for selecting the mayoral candidates and all the satraps are taking meetings of their supporters and making efforts to get maximum tickets for their loyalists.