Cong has 5-10 names for every seat

LUCKNOW: When the Congress decided to go it alone following the SP-BSP alliance in January this year, questions were raised about the party’s ability to find ‘winnable’ candidates for all the 80 Lok Sabha seats.

Though a joyous mood was witnessed among Congress workers, the leaders named seniors to make their point on the availability of strong candidates on more than 50 per cent of parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh.

According to party leaders, more and more leaders from various parties, including sitting and former MPs and MLAs of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are joining the Congress and staking their claim for a ticket on the seats of their choice.

The Congress is likely to release its first list of candidates in the next few days.

Sitting MP from Bahraich Savitribai Phule (BJP), sitting BJP MLA from Meerapur (Muzaffarnagar) Avtar Singh Bhadana, former union minister Ram Lal Rahi (BJP), former BSP MP from Sitapur Kaiser Jahan and former Samajwadi Party MP Rakesh Sachan are among the senior leaders who have joined the Congress in recent weeks.

Though the Congress has made no commitment for a ticket, the turncoats are a talking point and are being considered strong contenders for ticket in Lok Sabha elections.

According to senior Congress leaders, the party has about 10 serious contenders for a ticket on every Lok Sabha seat.

Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president Raj Babbar said, “We have 5-10 good candidates for every seat. We have held a meeting of our state election committee to discuss the names of candidates for nearly 15 seats.

The committee will meet again on Thursday to consider more names on other seats. The final decision will be taken by the central leadership.”

Congress legislature party leader Ajay Lallu said there was a set procedure for finalising the names of candidates. “Once the names are cleared by the PEC, the screening committee and central election committee finalise the candidate,” he said.

As the number of ticket-seekers continues to grow, the leaders are busy verifying the claims of contenders through different channels.

All-India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretaries for east and west Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Jyotiraditya Scindia, who had interacted with partymen in closed-door meetings, sought feedback about the aspirants for every seat.

After the meeting session, the AICC decided to send six general secretaries attached to these two general secretaries to different parliamentary constituencies to take feedback, put necessary organisation structure in place and provide inputs about ticketseekers.

The district and city committees of the Congress have submitted names of three aspiring candidates for their respective Lok Sabha constituencies. In some cases, the party committees have sent a panel of five aspirants.

An independent exercise is also being carried out for many seats to make sure that the inputs help in selection of right candidates.