THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress has decided on winnability as the main criterion for the selection of candidates for the coming assembly elections. Going by the deliberations at the first election committee meeting at Indira Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday, state and district-level office-bearers of the party and its affiliated organisations will be considered for candidature.
Though no formal decision has been taken, leaders opined at the meeting that sitting MPs should not contest assembly polls.
With just a few months to go for the polls, Congress has started preparing the draft list of candidates, with state president Sunny Joseph and Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan meeting district leaderships soon after the meeting. The duo met leaders from Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Pathanamthitta.
The move comes in the wake of the election committee entrusting the two senior leaders with seeking the opinion for preparing the draft list, in consultation with DCC presidents, MLAs and KPCC office-bearers.
Muraleedharan asked to concentrate on T’Puram district
The meetings are expected to be completed by Thursday. In Tuesday’s meeting, senior leader K C Joseph opined that the party should not consider incumbent MPs for the assembly polls. Benny Behanan told the committee that winnability should remain the criterion even if the party considers giving tickets to incumbent MLAs.
AICC general secretary Deepa Dasmunsi requested senior leader K Muraleedharan to concentrate on Thiruvananthapuram district. Muraleedharan asked the leadership not to consider the representatives who were elected to the local bodies for the assembly elections.
“An exemption should be given in rare situations, in which a particular leader is required to win a seat,” he said. Speaking on the occasion, Satheesan rejected reports suggesting that LDF MLAs have a good strike rate.
He highlighted the example of the 2001 assembly election result, where UDF secured 100 seats. “However, in the next election, many of our MLAs were defeated. This happened because the election trend had changed. Hence, trend and political atmosphere are key factors for winning an election,” he said.