About three years ahead of the next Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has initiated the process of identifying its candidates. The ruling party at the Centre wants to declare their names about a year before the polls. The party is holding surveys to identify constituency-specific issues and also prepare a list of potential candidates in every constituency who can be ?groomed?, according to party sources.
At the party?s state coordination committee meeting in Lucknow last week, which discussed the action plan for ?Mission 2012?, it was decided that the party would identify about 150 to 200 ?winnable? Assembly constituencies. Congress president Sonia Gandhi and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi will then tour these constituencies to mobilise the people and party workers before the Assembly elections. The Congress has started identifying constituency-specific issues around which the party would mobilise the people.
The ruling party at the Centre has apparently taken a cue from BSP supremo Mayawati who prefers to declare her party candidates much in advance, even though many of them are dropped and replaced subsequently.
?The Central Election Committee will declare the names of our candidates a year before the election. Our entire campaign, which will also be launched quite early, will revolve around these candidates,? said a senior Congress leader.
The AK Antony Committee, which had been constituted by the Congress president in early 2008 to suggest a roadmap for the party for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, had earlier recommended that the party should declare its candidates three months in advance for Assembly elections and six months ahead of Lok Sabha elections. These recommendations were, however, put under the carpet in subsequent elections as the Congress continued with its old practice of announcing candidates till the last date of filing nomination papers.
According to Congress sources, the party was focusing on early identification of candidates for the Assembly elections in UP because the party leadership was of the view that selection of right candidates had played a crucial role in the last Lok Sabha elections in which the party registered unexpected success winning 21 out of 80 seats in the state.
?Early selection of candidates not only gives them enough time to reach out to people but also ensures that there is enough time to put an end to factional bickering, if any, in the local party unit,? said a UP Congress leader.