Emerging from a meeting of the Congress’s State Election Committee in Jaipur on August 19, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot exuded confidence about winning “with a heavy margin for a second term”.
He took a dig at the BJP’s central leaders making rounds of the State ahead of the Assembly election, saying the Opposition party seemed to have already surrendered before the polls. “The BJP is planning to fight the election in the face of the Prime Minister. This shows that they have already accepted defeat. Will they take decisions on the State’s issues sitting in Delhi?” Mr. Gehlot said.
The Congress will distribute tickets to the candidates after wide-ranging consultations by the members of the State Election Committee with the party leaders in the constituencies. The first list of candidates is likely to be released next month.
Karnataka model
The Chief Minister said winnability would be the “first and last criterion” for selection of candidates. “We are going to follow the Karnataka model, where a 90-year-old candidate contested the polls and won. The party had recognised his winning potential,” Mr. Gehlot said, reiterating the party’s recent announcement that it would declare candidates in advance and counter the Opposition BJP’s propaganda aggressively.
Mr. Gehlot predicted a thumping win for Congress based on its popularity among voters because of the State government’s flagship welfare schemes. Rajasthan was showing direction to other States, where the ruling parties were incorporating similar schemes in their manifestos, he said.
Besides Mr. Gehlot, Pradesh Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra, party’s State in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, co-incharges Amrita Dhawan, Qazi Nizamuddin and Virendra Rathore, and former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot attended the State Election Committee meeting.
Mr. Dotasra said the State Election Committee members would visit the districts in groups to hold consultations with the District Congress Committee office-bearers and other party leaders in the constituencies. They will prepare the panels of three to five potential candidates for each Assembly seat and submit them to the Pradesh Congress Committee.
The party’s Screening Committee headed by Assam MP Gaurav Gogoi will be in Rajasthan for four days from August 28 to 31 to examine the recommendations and take a final decision on the party candidates.
