Notwithstanding internal bickering in its state unit, the Congress began the exercise for shortlisting candidates for the year-end assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh with the State Election Committee (SEC) holding its first meeting in the national capital on Monday.
The Congress had invited applications from aspirants, who seek party tickets for the Vidhan Sabha polls, the exercise for which ended recently.
The party has said the application drive was a success with as many as 1,347 aspirants, three times the 2017 assembly election, applying for the Congress ticket in 68 constituencies. While 677 applications were received online, 670 applicants applied offline.
“More than 40 applications have been received from Shimla (Urban)”, a Congress leader said based on the inputs from the state-level leadership. The high command was keen on taking an early decision on finalising the names of candidates.
Earlier, the SEC was scheduled to meet in Shimla on September 2 but with a Congress rally in Delhi on September 4, the venue was shifted to the national capital. The SEC has 19 members, besides all All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretaries and heads of all frontal organisations of the Himachal Pradesh unit. The SEC is headed by HPCC president Pratibha Singh and has Anand Sharma, Congress Legislature Party leader Mukesh Agnihotri and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu as its members.
Himachal Congress president Pratibha Singh said on Monday, “The shortlisted names will be forwarded to the Central Election Committee (CEC) soon. Winnibilaty will be the most important factor when the names for the 68 seats will be announced.”
Sources said with the state unit already battling dissensions and crossover of many of its senior leaders to the BJP, the senior Congress leadership was of the opinion that sooner the names were finalised, the easier it will be to quell the rebellion. “Also, what is important is the fact that early finalisation will give the candidates more time to campaign and establish a rapport with the public,” commented a leader.
Though there has been infighting over the allotment of tickets, Congress sources said in more than half of the 68 segments, there was no dispute about the candidates. It is learnt that the party could repeat most of its sitting MLAs.
Though the party leadership was upbeat over more applicants, insiders admitted zero application fee as the reason for the rise in the applications. Around 400 people had applied for the ticket in the last Assembly elections.
Party sources said the SEC could arrive at a consensus on the criteria for candidate selection so that shortlisting the candidates becomes less complicated and leads to minimal dissensions. The criteria could include age and the number of elections a person has lost, besides the margin of defeat.
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