Congress to follow UP model in Uttarakhand polls

The Congress is leaving no stone unturned to win the coming assembly elections in the BJP-ruled Uttarakhand and is contemplating to fight the battle on the pattern being followed in Uttar Pradesh.

The Congress is leaving no stone unturned to win the coming assembly elections in the BJP-ruled Uttarakhand and is contemplating to fight the battle on the pattern being followed in Uttar Pradesh.

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According to an initial strategy formulated at a meeting of central and state functionaries on Monday, the party has decided to re-nominate all the sitting legislators.

The Congress has 21 MLAs in the 70-member assembly.

The party has also decided to give tickets to those who stood second in the 2007 elections. But leaders who had left the party during the elections and rejoined it later will be denied tickets as a measure of punishment. Congress functionaries believe that about 14-15 of their candidates lost due to these rebels. In a majority of cases, the defeat margin was as thin as 3,000 votes.

The meeting also decided that women and youth will be given adequate representation in the ticket distribution process.

Those candidates who had come to the Congress from other parties during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and have the potential to win will also be considered.

During an interaction last month, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had asked the state leaders to draw up a victory plan for the elections. She had also asked them to shun their differences and work as a team to create an atmosphere in favour of the party and defeat the BJP.

Under no circumstances, sources said, is the leadership is going to allow the differences in its state unit to play spoilsport in encashing the opportunity of targeting the BJP's factional feud.