From CK Nayak
Jaipur: On a day Rahul Gandhi was declared de jure number two in the ruling Congress party there were voices raised against giving nominations in assembly and parliament polls and party office bearers contesting elections.
During the deliberations in the all-important group on emerging political challenges, the discussion saw a near consensus on the idea contained in the base paper for discussion that as a matter of policy no General Secretary, AICC in-charge of state, PCC and DCC President will contest the Lok Sabha/ Assembly election.
Though the three states – Meghalaya, Nagalnad and Tripura are going to polls next month, this concept might not affect since candidate lists have already been announced.
Meanwhile, Vincent Pala, M.P. and former Union Minister accompanied by all the three AICC Members from Meghalaya arrived here for the AICC meeting on Sunday while MPCC President D D Lapang is already attending the Chintan Shivir.
The AICC members from the state are- Diverland, Joplin Dkhar, Sanjay Das and James Lyngdoh.
It was pointed out that when elections are being held, General Secretaries, MPCC President and DCC Presidents instead of campaigning, overseeing, coordinating and monitoring the elections, are busy in their own respective constituencies, thereby adversely affecting the winning chances and morale of the party, the base paper presented at the meeting said.
It had suggested that instead of fielding them in elections, they could be considered for nomination for Boards, Corporations, upper House in parliament and legislature.
But while a large number of participants agreed with the view, there was opposition to this view.
There was a strong view that the Antony committee report on organizational reforms which recommended announcing the Lok Sabha candidates one year and assembly candidate three months in advance should be accepted.
There was a strong demand for ending the culture of nomination at all levels for democratic functioning of the party and its revival was made at the Shivir.
It was also argued to replicate Rahul Gandhi’s model of holding elections to the Youth Congress and NSUI in the parent body as well as all its other wings.
The discussion also saw a large number of partymen expressing concern over outsiders getting party tickets at the cost of loyalists during elections.
Members from Youth Congress were quite vocal in demanding that party tickets must go to party members and not turncoats or who joined only recently.