The Congress has almost readied its list of at least 120 lok Sabha contenders. The names, likely to be announced in two phases next week, will have a few surprises.
The names of candidates for 28 lS seats in Karnataka and four in Himachal Pradesh, some from Odisha, West Bengal and North East States have been done with and awaiting announcement by the party high command. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, who also heads the lok Sabha Screening Committee besides being the lead campaigner for the General Elections 2014, has approved the list, top AICC sources said.
AICC sources said the new entrants have been drawn from technocrats, those from within and out of bureaucracy, people from corporate fields to be fielded from metro and ‘A’ class constituencies and those having a wide reach through social websites. The list also has a couple of names of grassroots workers just to keep the morale of the party workers high. Even in the AICC session Rahul had announced that 15 candidates would be selected by the party workers directly with interferences by top or local leadership.
The Congress is, however, yet to take into account the probables in the States in the Hindi heartland like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh besides those such as Rajasthan and Gujarat. In Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, where the party is yet to
firm up alliances, too have not been touched.
“The process in these States generally tend to be controversial and needs more scanning. So the list of contenders from these states may take some time. Probably, after the vote on account session is over,” said a very senior Congress leader.
In case there is a delay in this regard, the party will finalise candidates for seats from the Congress quota in States where there are alliances with logic that even if the seats are exchanged among the allies at a later stage, the names of candidates should be decided earlier.
The selection is taking into account Rahul’s vision for underlining the importance of giving weightage to “voice of common people” with broad parameters of candidate selection with no criminal record against them and an experience of right kind of politics along with winnability being the most important factor.
Congress had constituted screening committees for all states and UTs for early selection of lok Sabha candidates.
In a bid to deal with the massive anti-incumbency faced by the party, the Congress is all set to drop nearly 50 per cent of its MPs as party’s nominees for the polls.
Rahul in a recent Screening Committee meeting said that the party would announce candidates much in advance which would beyond the traditional practice to make in the 11th hour. The exercise is being done in line with the recommendation of the A K Antony panel which recommended that the candidates should be declared at least a few months ahead of the elections.
Congress leadership is heavily banking in 12 states ruled by the party presently.