Desperate to win the confidence of the Party core workers and leaders, general secretary of the All India Congress Committee, Madhusudan Mistri, assured the Party’s cadre that they will not repeat the mistake of giving ticket to outsiders in the next Assembly elections. “Yes, I agree with your annoyance that in 2012 Assembly elections many outsiders were given ticket to contest Assembly elections”, confessed Mistri while indirectly blaming the then incharge of party Affairs, Digvijay Singh and State president, Rita Bhauguna Joshi, and also without taking their names.
“The situation was not same during Parliament elections in 2014 when just five out of the total 85 candidates were outsiders and even three out of them had joined Congress four months before the polls”,cited Mistri while trying to pacify the workers and leaders that during his or present state president, Nirmal Khatri’s regime, they tried that only old and sincere leaders would get ticket. Mistri made above remarks while addressing district and city Congress presidents along with other senior leaders who all gathered to draw strategy for making their May 12 pretest a success. Mistri also reportedly said that about half of the seats for next Assembly elections would be decided at least a year before the polls and selection will be made on basis of panel cleared by district units.
It may be mentioned that in 2014 in comparison to 2012, just five tickets were given to outsiders as no one was interested in seeking Congress ticket which at that time facing charges of rampant corruption, with a dozen of their minister’s names coming in scams etc, and every one was predicting complete rout for the Party candidates. The predictions also proved correct when only Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi could save their seats while a majority of other even lost their deposits.
To further boost the morale of the workers and win their confidence, Mistri said that the Party would contest coming Panchayat elections with all it’s strength. “You all should get ready as we will fight Panchayat elections with out full strength”, Mistri told Congressmen, though clarifying that as per the traditions, no Party symbols will be allotted, except for chairman’s post.
Meanwhile, replying to a question that whether Congress vice-president, Rahul Gandhi would also come to Uttar Pradesh to take up the farmers issue, Mistri confirmed that he will surely visit but said that there is no immediate program. “Yes, Rahu will come to Uttar Pradesh to join farmers agitation but since I and UPCC leaders so far not decided his program, so he was not coming immediately but once we will go through it, Rahul will take up farmer’s issue here in UP”, Mistri revealed.
Earlier the leaders held a meeting to decide strategy for proposed demonstrations at all the 820 blocks of the state on May 12, to oppose the amendment of the land Acquisition Act besides demanding more relief for the farmers of the State. “We will monitor the programme at all the blocks,” said UPCC president, Nirmal Khatri while announcing that a team would assess the programme.’’ There is no need for any big programme but even a small function would be accepted at the blocks on the day,” he said. He also claimed that from May 7 to 10, local leaders would hold awareness programme to tell the people particularly farmers about the proposed bill of NDA government and the one introduced by UPA government. The leaders would also call the farmers to join in their agitation and take along Congress’s fight against Narendra Modi’s government on all anti-farmer’s issues.