Congress Veterans Seek Tickets For Their Wards In Bihar, Party Focus On 'Winnability' Factor Of Candidates

New Delhi: The Congress is reportedly flooded with requests from several senior leaders for tickets for their wards for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections. However, the party's high command is focused only on the winnability factor of the potential candidates.

According to party insiders, several senior leaders like former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, former state unit chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh, former union minister Shakeel Ahmed, sitting MLA Ajeet Sharma, former minister Avdhesh Singh and former state unit chief MM Jha have requested the AICC for a ticket for their wards.

Meira's son Anshul Kumar and Akhilesh's son Akash Singh have contested the Lok Sabha elections in the past but are seeking a re-launch in the upcoming Assembly elections. Jha and Ahmed want to start the political career of their sons while Sharma is keen that his daughter, a Bollywood actor, join active politics.

The party insiders said there was nothing wrong in the wards of senior leaders getting a ticket but it should not be seen as a favour and the tickets should be issued to the most suitable candidate on every seat the Congress is set to contest in alliance with the INDIA bloc allies.

Earlier, the senior leaders had wished that the names of their wards be sent separately but the screening committee members sent a panel of names on seats before the CEC to ensure fair play.

“Ticket distribution is the most challenging and crucial aspect of politics. There is nothing wrong in senior leaders wishing tickets for their sons or daughters but the main concern for the party is always to put up the most suitable and winnable candidate keeping in mind the local situation,” AICC secretary in charge of Bihar Sushil Pasi told ETV Bharat.

Such requests are being attributed to a surge in the Congress' popularity ahead of the November 6 and 11 elections and had come even before the central election committee which discussed around 60 names and finalized around 25 in its first meeting on October 8.

Once the seat-sharing formula is formally announced by the bloc, the Congress will announce its first list of candidates, said party insiders, adding the remaining seats will then be announced before the CEC by next week. The Congress, which contested 70 of 243 seats in 2020, is likely to settle for around 60 this time, the insiders said.

According to AICC secretary in charge of Bihar Devendra Yadav, the bloc allies were aggressively pursuing both seat-sharing and ticket distribution and will complete the process in time. “I would like to say that 99 per cent of the background work on both seat-sharing and ticket distribution had been done internally. We will certainly make a formal announcement of the same well in time,” Yadav told ETV Bharat.

“As far as ticket distribution is concerned the political factors and social equations change on every seat. We make our decisions accordingly. We have also considered feedback of the central observers on all our seats over identifying the most suitable candidate. There are some seats which require least discussion while there are some where tough negotiations are needed,” he said.

Party insiders said discussions on a few seats were yet to be finalized with the RJD but noted that the issue would be sorted out amicably in a day or two. Pasi said the Congress was fully geared up for the coming elections along with its allies and was better placed than the ruling NDA which was struggling with seat-sharing.

Also Read

Bihar Elections: Ticket Aspirants Crowd Patna Party Headquarters Amid Hopes And Frustrations