Apparently taking the leaf out of AAP strategy, Congress will decide candidates of 16 Lok Sabha constituencies including that of Union Minister Kapil Sibal's Chandni Chowk in Delhi and young leader Meenakshi Natrajan's Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh through primaries.
The constituencies where the candidate selection has been made transparent include Gauhati (Assam),Chandni Chowk and North West Delhi (Delhi), Bhavnagar and Vadodara (Gujarat), Bangalore North and Daskshin Kanara (Karnataka), Indore and Mandsaur (Madhya Pradesh) Aurangabad and Yavatamal-Washim (Maharashtra), Bikaner and Jhunjhunu (Rajasthan) Sant Kabir Nagar and Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) and Kolkata North (West Bengal).
At the recent AICC meeting, Rahul Gandhi had declared that tickets for 15 Lok Sabha seats will be given on the basis of feedback from local units and if the experiment works, it would be expanded to legislatures.
Party Media Department chief Ajay Maken gave the details of the seats on his Twitter account. Maken tweeted "Rahul Ji's initiative; change the system, make it transparent & open it. Congress candidates election through primaries.."
Under the primaries, a representative section of party workers, leaders and other influencers, satisfying certain criteria, will decide the Congress candidate from their constituency by participating in a simple voting process.
Similarly, any eligible person satisfying certain clearly laid down requirements shall be accepted as a candidate for the primaries.
Primaries are one of the many ways by which a political party can decide its candidate for an upcoming election. It is a system which allows for a broader participation of party supporters in deciding who should be a candidate from their constituency from that party. It makes the ticket allotment process fair and more transparent.
The Congress party is the first national party to bring in such a process in India, the party said on its website.
