Cong to give priority to youth, women in poll nominations
The main opposition party holds its first screening committee meeting in Dehradun
DEHRADUN: The Congress on Wednesday decided to give priority to youth and women in nomination for the 2022 state assembly election as the main opposition party holds its first screening committee meeting in Dehradun.
The screening committee meeting for selection of candidates for the 70 assembly seats held under member of party central working committee and president of screening committee Avinash Pande in presence of its other members including former chief minister and president of party’s state election campaign committee Harish Rawat, party state president Ganesh Godiyal, party state incharge Devendra Yadav, leader of opposition Pritam Singh and state co incharges Deepika Pandey and Rajesh Dharmani.
Informing the media about details of the meeting, Pandey said, “All members unanimously agreed on three important things which included giving prior priority to elected leaders and those working hard in the organisation. Priority will also be given to youth and strong women candidates in any seat apart from those who have been fighting in it hard on ground against the government in last four and a half years.”
Pandey also informed that the candidates will also be decided on the basis of recommendation from the respective district committees which will be mandatory. “This was the first meeting of the committee and it was held with a major objective of working in coordination with the state election campaign committee so as to decide on the recommendations of possible candidates before sending it to the central election committee for final decision as per the party tradition. We will soon declare the first list of candidates so that they can have adequate time in their hands for the poll preparations,” said Pandey.
On the question of declaring party’s CM face, he said, “There has been no such tradition in the Congress except a few cases. It is always decided after winning elections by the central leadership.”
Earlier at the press conference, he said: “Uttarakhand is going to witness a change in 2022. During the meeting, we all came to a conclusion with full confidence that in the ongoing strong wind of change in the country, Uttarakhand won’t remain unchanged. It will witness change in the upcoming polls as people of the state want to give the party a chance to serve them after only getting disappointment from the present BJP government in its last four and a half year of tenure despite being given a huge mandate.”
Meanwhile, the BJP held a high-level meeting under union minister and party state election incharge Prahlad Joshi at party state headquarters in Dehradun on Wednesday to discuss the strategy for poll preparations.
The meeting was attended by party’s senior state leadership including state unit head Madan Kaushik, party state election co incharges RP Singh and Locket Chatterjee.
A senior leaders privy to the details of meeting said, “Issues pertaining to the polls were discussed along with the weak points on which the leadership agreed to work upon more strongly. It was also decided by all the leaders to spend more time in the different constituencies to increase public outreach.”
Kaushik said, “The party is in full election mode... the meeting was held to discuss the upcoming party programmes. We will soon form screening committee for the selection of candidates.”