Cong invites applications to select poll candidates

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 18

The state unit of the Congress today began the process of ticket distribution by inviting applications from aspirants on a specified format with an accompanying fee of Rs5,000 from the general category and Rs 2,000 from the SC category applicants while the party is still to decide whether or not its candidates who contested the recently held Lok Sabha polls would be eligible.

The party has not set any deadline for the receipt of these applications which can be sent to the party office in Chandigarh or to the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee chief or to the Rajya Sabha MP Selja’s address in New Delhi or it can even be e-mailed.

Though the party has its leaders — sitting and former MLAs — in all 90 constituencies and a change is unlikely in most of the Assembly segments, the final call will be taken by the Pradesh Election Committee of the party headed by the HPCC chief.

“The candidates will be decided by the committee and factors like winnability of the candidates, social equations and the standing of various leaders will be taken into account. We are yet to decide on various parameters, including contesting of Assembly elections by the party’s candidates who fought the Lok Sabha poll. Also, though the party ticket can only be given to one candidate in one constituency, we have left the last date for receiving applications open-ended. The others will be involved in the election and given different responsibilities,” Selja said during an informal interaction here today.

The fee to be deposited into the party fund has also been brought down from Rs10,000 in the last election to Rs5,000 and Rs2,000 in this election for the general and SC applicants though Selja was in favour of completely doing away with the amount, sources maintained.

Having held programmes in a few districts after taking over as the HPCC president, Selja said there was a perceptible change in the public mood since the parliamentary elections. “The BJP has been exposed, its mask has fallen and the economic slowdown is hitting everybody. The state’s issues are not resonating with the people which is why the BJP wants to follow the Lok Sabha election pattern and zero in on diversionary issues,” she maintained, adding that referring to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) or the abrogation of Article 370 would not be a vote-puller.

The HPCC president said the Congress would go to the people with the issues of unemployment, farmer distress, unrest among employees and economic slowdown. “The Lok Sabha elections were a one-sided story but the Assembly poll will be a different ball game. The public is looking up to the Congress to bring in the much-needed relief,” she added.

Party to take call on my candidacy: Hooda 

With the BJP bringing up abrogation of Article 370 and implementation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) during the poll campaign, former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday said both topics were non-issues for the Assembly elections and people would vote on issues concerning the state. The former CM said the party would take a call on his contesting the poll. “The decision on whether all those who have lost Lok Sabha poll could contest would be taken by the party,” he said.