Grassroots workers to select party candidate for 2014 Lok Sabha elections

GUWAHATI: Congress’ pilot project to involve grassroots workers in selection of party candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls will cover 14 parliamentary constituencies across the country, AICC general secretary Prakash Joshi said in Guwahati on Friday.

Two seats selected from Delhi have been removed from the list as Kapil Sibal and Krishna Tirath, who represent the seats, expressed their reservations on the move. The bid to allow primary workers to have a say in the selection of candidates is an initiative of Rahul Gandhi and will be rolled out in a constituency each in Assam and West Bengal.

“A representative section of party workers, leaders and other influencers satisfying certain criteria would decide on Congress candidates from their constituency by participating in a simple voting process,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi had declared that tickets for around 15 Lok Sabha seats would be given on the basis of response from local units. It is a departure from the traditional system where the party’s central election committee and Pradesh Congress Committees choose candidate.

The process will be completed in three phases. In the second phase, constituencies of UP and MP will be taken up. The constituencies where candidate selection will be done through the new method include Bhavnagar and Vadodara (Gujarat), Bangalore North and Daskshin Kanara (Karnataka), Indore and Mandsaur (MP) Aurangabad and Yavatamal-Washim (Maharashtra), Bikaner and Jhunjhunu (Rajasthan) Sant Kabir Nagar and Varanasi (UP) and Kolkata North (West Bengal).