In a straight departure from past procedure to pick the lok Sabha candidates, Congress on Saturday set in motion a new procedure of candidate selection through the participation of party workers and former MPs, MlAs, councillors, block and district presidents, delegates who will cast their ballot for picking a candidate for New Delhi Parliamentary constituency under the ‘Primaries’ project of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken represents the New Delhi lok Sabha seat.
This kind of approach was adopted by the AAP in the past. While the AAP has somewhat abandoned this approach and awarded tickets to Arvind Kejriwal loyalists, the Congress is adopting the democratic agenda. What is really intriguing is the fact that many sitting lok Sabha MPs of the Congress are unwilling to contest and this democratisation may help them adopt the Rajya Sabha route.
Former MlA and close aide of Maken, Hari Shankar Gupta who is in-charge of the New Delhi Parliamentary constituency under the ‘Primaries’ project, told The Pioneer that voter registration programme has been started from February 21 and draft voters’ list would be released on 24. Besides, current MlAs, MlCs, MPs, national office bearers of AICC/departments (SC, ST, OBC and Minority) and current chairpersons of district-level associations of doctors (IMA), dentists (IDA), CAs (ICA), Bar associations, engineers and traders may also sign up as voters.
“The scrutiny of voter’s list will be held on February 26 and 27. Any interested candidates may file their nominations till 27 February, after which, the election date would be announced. Voters will exercise their franchise through ballot papers for the primaries. The party will also display the name of candidate after the election,” said Gupta. When asked whether Maken will contest lS seat, he said that if party workers choose him as a candidate, he will have to contest.
Meanwhile, asked if Congress was following Aam Aadmi Party in launching the project, Gupta said that the Arvind Kejriwal-led outfit had not planned or implemented any such scheme for the selection of candidates. “Whether, he has taken opinion of party workers before fielding party candidates for the lok Sabha election,” Gupta questioned. He said that voters and candidates with a criminal background would be kept out of the project.
On Saturday, hundreds of Congress workers from New Delhi lok Sabha seat assembled in Pradesh Congress office to get the first-hand account of the procedure from Gupta and AICC representatives. After the New Delhi Parliamentary constituency, the project will soon be launched in the North-East lok Sabha constituency as well.