BENGALURU: Wary of its leaders switching over to other parties in case they are denied tickets to contest the Assembly polls, the Congress has decided to delay the announcement of the names of its candidates till the end of April. The state assembly polls are likely to be held in the first or second week of May and the ruling party is likely to come out with its list after JD(S) and BJP.
Taking a head start over other parties, JD(S) last month announced its first list of candidates and is expected to come out with the second list soon. The BJP, which is hoping to come back to power in the state, too has set in motion the process of selecting its candidates.
“The Congress always has too many aspirants and we don’t want to lose our leaders just because they did not get tickets. In the spur of the moment, they may make a wrong decision (to join other parties). So we purposefully plan and time it in such a way that they don’t go (to other parties),” the KPCC chief G Parameshwara said. In other words, the Congress’s list will be released after other parties announce their candidates so that rebels, if any, will not have any chance of contesting elections from other parties.
Four days after it invited applications from those interested in contesting elections on its ticket, the Congress got over 1,000 applications. According to the KPCC president, the applications will be evaluated by the party, while it will also have other mechanisms, including getting reports from its observers, to identify winnable candidates.
“The process is on. Now, we can more or less say who can win or who will find it difficult. We have 124 sitting MLAs and are evaluating them. If someone is going to lose, then why would you give him (a ticket)? Winning is the criterion,” he said, indicating that all sitting MLAs may not get tickets.
The Congress, which is putting in all efforts to retain power in Karnataka, has taken steps to strengthen its cadres, formed booth committees, propagating achievements of the Siddaramaiah government and also tried to effectively counter BJP’s high-voltage campaign led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and its national president Amit Shah.
At the same time, the party is well aware of the damage its own rebels can cause. Once the list of candidates is announced, the party will put in place teams that will effectively handle rebels. Influential local leaders will be made responsible and directed to handle any trouble from within, while national leaders too will be involved in dealing with the issue. A similar system was put in place in Gujarat, and it had worked well for the party.
‘CARPET BOMBING BY BJP WILL NOT WORK’
In Karnataka, the Congress has many strong local leaders across the state and BJP’s strategy of deploying a large number of national leaders at different places at the same time will not have any impact, said KPCC president Parameshwara. “What will they come and talk about? They have nothing to say and that is the reason PM Modi is also adopting a hit-and-run strategy by making allegations such as ‘10 per cent government’,” he said, daring the PM to act against a constitutionally elected government in Karnataka if he had any information about the allegations he was making.
Congress constitutes screening committee
AICC President Rahul Gandhi has constituted a screening committee headed by AICC General Secretary Madhusudan Mistry to assist the party high command in selecting the candidates for the upcoming Assembly election. The committee will have Congress MPs Tamradhwaj Sahu and Gaurav Gogoi as members of the committee.