Deccan Chronicle

Tough test ahead for Cong ticket aspirants

AICC to study current strength of prospectiv­e candidates who lost elections in the past

- KIRAN REDDY ALTHURU | DC HYDERABAD, SEPT. 25

The All India Congress Committee (AICC) is more particular about the Telangana elections. The high command has decided to concentrat­e on the constituen­cies of Telangana where Congress leaders have lost in consecutiv­e elections while selecting candidates for the upcoming elections.

The Congress high command is worried over the party’s defeat in the 2014 elections even after granting Statehood to Telangana. This was said by none other than the AICC President Mr Rahul Gandhi to Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) leaders at the airport in Hyderabad after returning from Kurnool to take his flight to Delhi last week.

Now the Congress high command doesn’t want to take any chances in the

The screening process for these candidates will be tougher in getting tickets

Their fate will be decided based on the survey that will be done soon.

Aspirants who had more defeats will also be scanned.

These candidates will be replaced if their graph is still declining.

upcoming elections and is therefore clearing all minor issues within the party. In this regard, the party has started focusing on the candidates who were defeated in elections consecutiv­ely. The screening process for these candidates will be tougher as their fate will be decided based on the survey reports that will be done soon by the TPCC. The high command has decided to replace these consecutiv­e losers and the aspirants with more defeats than victories, if their graph is still declining.

Speaking to DC, a AICC senior leader from Delhi said, “The party is concentrat­ing more on the candidates with consecutiv­e defeats. It doesn’t mean that the party will not give a ticket to them. If they have lost in consecutiv­e elections, we will check the percentage of votes, whether they were more or less than the last time the candidate lost and look at what the survey has found about the candidate’s winning chances this time. If the graph has declined, the indication is they are out of favour in the public, then we are ready to replace them.”

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from India