Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was right when he said that the contest in Rajasthan is tight and Congress is winning in other states. At least this is what being reflected from jostling for tickets in Rajasthan. Even after marathon screening meetings followed by apex committee of election central election committee, the party could not reach consensus on candidates.
So when Rahul Gandhi made statement about Rajasthan, the infighting in the party was in his mind.
For other states, decision making was easier and the party has declared 144 candidates in Madhya Pradesh, 83 candidates in Chhattisgarh, 55 tickets in Telangana and 39 candidates in Mizoram.
In Madhya Pradesh Congress state chief Kamal Nath has even released manifesto of party.
“Rahul Gandhi is not happy with the line up suggested by the screening committee. He wants fresh faces on few seats which the state leadership doesn't want to accommodate. Now it's a Herculean task for the party to declare candidates without much protest,” said a senior Congress leader.
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot wants to repeat 106 MLAs who had given support when his government was doldrums. He had promised all those MLAs to look after their interest as their guardian. But the central leadership has received multiple complaints of corruption against these MLAs and some ministers and the high command wants to deny tickets to at least 40% MLAs including 10 ministers.
“It seems Gehlot has committed morally to give tickets to those who stood by him during crisis. But central high command wants to go by independent survey reports. They want to deny tickets to even those who coordinated meeting of MLAs parallel to ‘infamous' CLP meeting which was scheduled on September 25 last year,” said a senior leader.
Then there is Sachin Pilot also, who wants to secure tickets for his sympathisers. He is gunning for tickets for at least 20 MLAs who had been with him when he was stripped of his post in party as well as in government.
“Reaching consensus is not easy and it is certain that one of factions will be left grudging. So in overall interest of party tickets should be announced at the earliest. The party will need time to handle protest also which is already simmering,” said Raghuveer Singh, a political analyst.
Ram Kumar Kaushik is a seasoned journalist with over 25 years of experience across mediums. The architect of this news website, he is also a consultant with several media groups. He was formerly the group managing editor of ITV Network (NewsX, India News and The Sunday Guardian) and its digital products.
