Congress puts selection process for 2014 in motion

The next Lok Sabha elections may be less than a year away but the Congress has already stepped up its battle preparedness. Work on the draft manifesto has commenced and the second phase of the candidate-selection process is nearing completion, Aurangzeb Naqshbandi reports.

The next Lok Sabha elections may be less than a year away but the Congress has already stepped up its battle preparedness. Work on the draft manifesto has commenced and the second phase of the candidate-selection process is nearing completion.

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After receiving reports from 54 observers on all the 543 seats, party general secretary Madhusudan Mistry has been touring the country to get feedback and cross-check the details of potential candidates.

Mistry, who was assigned the task of identifying winnable candidates on all the parliamentary constituencies by Rahul Gandhi, is also taking feedback on the performance of sitting MPs.

After making an independent assessment of each constituency, Mistry will submit a detailed report to Congress president Sonia Gandhi by July end.

Though the entire exercise is being carried out to announce the names of candidates much before the elections, many senior Congress leaders did not rule out last minute changes in the list due to “various pressing reasons”.

The party has simultaneously started the process of preparing the draft manifesto. The Congress president had in November 2012 named various committees for 2014 general elections and defence minister AK Antony was given charge of the panel on manifesto and government programmes.