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Cong may focus on youth and loyalists for tickets in assembly polls
Congress plans to prioritize young leaders, fresh faces, and loyalists for upcoming assembly polls, aiming to avoid candidates likely to defect and to reward commitment.
The Congress might give preference to young leaders, fresh faces and loyalists in the ticket selection for the upcoming assembly polls, senior leaders told HT after the party brass met the screening committees of the four poll-bound states on Monday.
According to three leaders who were present in the meeting, senior leaders had highlighted the need to promote young and fresh faces in the upcoming elections after the party projected a large number of new candidates in the Lok Sabha elections.
“The meeting was called to set the parameters for selecting candidates. Many leaders including top-ranking leaders emphasised that young and new faces should be given a chance and also party loyalists who remained committed during the past 10 years should be rewarded,” said a senior functionary who attended the meeting.
Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi, according to two functionaries, pointed out that the screening committees should weed out those who might leave to join another party after winning seats.
“In the last few years, we lost a host of lawmakers to the rivals, especially to the BJP. The upcoming elections, coming after our success in the Lok Sabha polls, are crucial. We can’t afford to put up dubious candidates,” said a member of a screening committee.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Gandhi are set to visit J&K this week to finalise the alliance in the UT that will have its first assembly polls after the scrapping of Article 370 in 2019. In the Lok Sabha alliance, the Congress joined hands with the National Conference even as Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP was a part of the INDIA group.
Both Congress and NC leaders maintained that three parties could not be accommodated on the six seats of the valley and Ladakh.
On Monday, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said that the party is “fully geared up for the upcoming round of elections” after the key meeting. “There is anger against the BJP and we are confident that we will defeat the BJP and fulfil the people’s wishes for a pro-poor, pro-people government in each of these states,” he added.
After the Congress parliamentary party chief Sonia Gandhi asked the party to maintain momentum in the assembly polls, Kharge formed the screening committees for Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Haryana, and Jammu & Kashmir.
Screening panels are mandated with shortlisting candidates while the final choice is made by the central election committee that comprises the top leaders of the party.
Congress treasurer Ajay Maken and the party’s Lok Sabha whip Manickam Tagore are part of the four-member panel for Haryana where the Congress bagged 5 of 10 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Party leader Jignesh Mevani and Youth Congress president BV Srinivas are also members of the Haryana screening committee. Maken is the chairman of the panel.
In Maharashtra, the Congress formed a four-member panel under the leadership of Madhusudan Mistry. Saptagiri Ulaka, Mansoor Ali Khan and Sirivella Prasad are the other members.
The party formed a three-member screening panel for Jharkhand under the chairmanship of Girish Chodankar, the Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP. The other two members are Poonam Paswan and Prakash Joshi.
The J&K panel is headed by party general secretary Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and has Anto Antony and Sachin Rao as members.
