The long-awaited formation of a new Pradesh Congress Committee would elude the State Congress for some more months till the general election as per the direction of the Congress president Rahul Gandhi. The direction has left many State party leaders disappointed as they were impatiently waiting to figure in the reconstituted PCC.
Talking to The Pioneer, the in-charge of the Uttarakhand Congress, Anugrah Narayan Singh said that new PCCs have been constituted in Karnataka, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. “In the remaining States, the PCCs would be constituted after Lok Sabha election as per the direction of the Congress president,” he said. He revealed that the list of the members in the new PCC of the State was almost ready. Singh added that the list had about 180 members.
Quizzed over the poor preparation of the Congress as compared to the BJP for the forthcoming grand electoral battle, the Congress leader claimed that the organisation of the party is ready to face the election head-on. He said that the BJP leaders are making no preparation apart from instigating the people on the communal lines.
On the selection of the party candidates for the ensuing Lok Sabha election, he said that the district and mahanagar committees have submitted the list of candidates proposed by them. “Now the state screening committee would do a scrutiny,” he said.
The screening committee is headed by Singh while the co in-charge of Congress Rajesh Dharmani, Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Pritam Singh, leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Indira Hridayesh and national general secretary (organisation) Venu Gopal are members of the committee. After screening of the applications of the candidates for all five Lok Sabha constituencies, this committee would constitute a panel of candidates.
The panel would be sent to the central election committee of the party for final selection, Singh added.
The State in-charge further said that factors like acceptance, contacts and ability to win the election would be the key factors based on which the names of the candidates for Lok Sabha polls would be decided.