The Congress is changing the way it selects candidates for assembly elections this time, a leader who is familiar with the development.
Instead of short-listing candidates in Delhi, selection or screening panels are also moving from the voters to the states to make the process more participatory and based on feedback.
In a state like Assam, the first list may come out soon as local leaders plan to seek approval from the party’s Central Election Committee through a Zoom meeting.
The change in the selection process seems to have been the result of a letter sent by a group of 23 dissidents (G-23) to party president Sonia Gandhi in August last year, questioning whether the party “high command” in Delhi was even Why appoint district and block-level officers.
Now in Assam, for example, the party has deputed former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan as a key member of the G-23, which will head the panel to select potential candidates.
On Wednesday, Mr. Chavan and other All India Congress Committee officials consulted. Of the 126 seats in the state, the Congress can contest up to 100 and leave the remaining allies: Bodo People’s Front, All India United Democratic Front, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Party of India.
“We will identify about three candidates for each seat based on ground surveys and feedback from activists in the constituency; After this the opinion of the district presidents will be taken. Since Bhupesh BaghelYes [Chhattisgarh Chief Minister] One of the observers here, party workers from Chhattisgarh has also conducted a ground survey, ”says a senior Assam leader.
Similar models are being followed in Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu.
Under the supervision of the data analytics department, the party is now adopting a two-step process to zero in on potential candidates: first, it conducts a survey among party workers to put a person’s name via SMS, called They want to be seen as a party. Candidate; “Viability” analysis is then done by taking feedback from the voters from every booth for the names of the workers getting the most votes.
Department head Praveen Chakraborty said, “This process is really a step of transparency of Rahul Gandhi for the 2018 assembly elections,” Hindu.
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