Cong poll panel to meet today to scrutinise 3,000 aspirants’ forms

Giving a push to its election preparedness, the election committee of the Congress party will on Tuesday finalise the criteria to consider applicants for tickets. The committee is also likely to start scrutinising the 3,000 forms of potential candidates shortlisted by the party’s district and block office bearers.

Giving a push to its election preparedness, the election committee of the Congress party will on Tuesday finalise the criteria to consider applicants for tickets. The committee is also likely to start scrutinising the 3,000 forms of potential candidates shortlisted by the party’s district and block office bearers.

The committee, headed by Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Jai Prakash Agarwal, will also invite applications from party workers and other people who want to contest the polls on the Congress ticket.

The 27-member election committee has seven Delhi MPs, three Rajya Sabha MPs nominated from Delhi, the Delhi chief minister, her two cabinet colleagues, president of Congress Yuva Morch and Mahila Morcha and MLAs among others.

“The meeting on Tuesday is actually the start of the whole process. We gave a fair chance to everyone who wants to contest the election. Our district and block level office bearers have already sent us the nomination of people from the grassroots level who they think deserve a ticket,” said a senior party leader.

Soon after his anointment in Jaipur in January this year, Gandhi had resolved to give block, district and state units a greater say in candidate selection.

He had also stated that paratroopers, rebels, discards and outsiders will not be accommodated in the organisation. Senior party leaders said the new form is an attempt to ensure that aspirants who have actually done some wok in Delhi are given due importance.

The ticket seekers not just have to list out their political and social achievements in the forms but will also have to identify the other party workers who too deserve the same seat.