A day after asserting that the Congress would select competent and deserving leaders as candidates in the coming Assembly polls, All India Congress Committee General Secretary, Gulam Nabi Azad, made a volta face on Friday.
Azad, who took over as the in-charge of UP, directed office bearers to prepare a blue-print on the basis of caste and religious equations so that contestants could be finalised. He said this while addressing UPCC office bearers, district and city unit chiefs, head of frontal outfits and in-charge of cells here at the UPCC headquarters on Friday morning.
Earlier on Thursday, Azad while speaking to the media, had asserted that Congress never considered caste or religion and only deserving candidates were selected.
“In the Hindu dominated region of Jammu, Congress did not field any Muslim candidate so the BJP and the National Conference won the seats. But once we decided to field a Minority on one of the 13 seats in Jammu in 2001-02, Congress won 11 seats,” cited Azad implying that Muslims were sizeable in numbers but finding no one from their community in the list, they did no vote for Congress.
``In last polls, the Congress again did not field Minority candidates and again we failed to open our account in Jammu region,” he pointed out.
“Just like Jammu, many castes and religions failed to get representation in tickets in UP so that community did not vote for them resulting in a dismal show of the part,” said Azad.
“I would like to tell you all that you should go to respective areas and work out the caste and religion equation and prepare a blue print on which candidate influenced a large members of his community. During selection of candidates, we will take care of this factor,” said the Congress leader.
Azas said t hat he would be visiting all the districts after a fortnight to collect details on it directly from the leaders to ensure that everyone gets a fair representation in ticket distribution.
Meanwhile party sources revealed that Azad took a jibe at the jumbo size of UPCC committee under Nirmal Khatri. ``I wanted to meet each one of you but you have a committee of 450 office bearers. It would take more than four years for me to know each of you,” asserted Azad.