Congress will not give tickets to party hoppers in Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in 2017.
"We will not entertain turncoats," AICC General Secretary and in charge of party affairs in the state Madhusudan Mistry told partymen here.
Addressing Congress leaders in a closed-door meeting, he shared the complaint of workers that tickets were given to outsiders in the 2012, saying it is "understandable".
Mistry was quoted by some partymen, who attended the meeting, as saying that Congress will not give tickets to outsiders in the 2017 assembly polls.
The party did not field new entrants in the 2014 parliamentary polls. Only five out of 80 Lok Sabhas seats were given to new entrants in 2014, he said.
Mistry said the party will shortlist names of its candidates for the next assembly elections well in advance and announce candidates for some 200 odd seats out of 403 Assembly seats in the state.
As part of efforts to galvanise the party in the state, where its electoral fortune is on the wane, he apprised party workers of the role of social media for propagating party programmes and dispelling the false propaganda of its political rivals.
Sharpening its posture against the land acquisition bill of the NDA government, Uttar Pradesh Congress decided to burn copies of the proposed legislation at block headquarters in the state on May 12.
"We will make a bonfire of copies of the land acquisition ordinance for which preparatory meetings will be held once in every block between May 7 and 10," a party release quoting UPCC President Nirmal Khatri said.
