Vadodara may get its Congress candidate for the upcoming Lok Sabha seat through an internal election within the party, following a recent announcement by the party’s Vice-President Rahul Gandhi at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) meeting in New Delhi. It was decided at the meeting that the party would elect its candidates for the 15 Lok Sabha seats across the country. Vadodara City Congress President Narendra Ravat had requested Gandhi to include Vadodara among the 15 seats, in which candidates will be chosen according to local public opinion among the party. According to Ravat, who attended the AICC meet, Gandhi has shown keen interest in strengthening the Vadodara seat for the upcoming polls and considered his request to include Vadodara among the 15 LS seats. According to Ravat, if all goes as planned, the city Congress will soon draw out a voters’ list to select the candidate for the Lok Sabha elections. “The local election will be an exercise to choose the Lok Sabha candidate according to mandate of the locals here. We will soon draw out a voters’ list to decide who will be eligible to contest to be chosen as the Vadodara nominee. Those who will directly vote to choose their Vadodara Lok Sabha candidate will include at least 1,000 people connected to the party, such as elected members to various government posts, office-bearers, party workers and units, various executive members of the parties as well as those party leaders who have been elected at the gram panchayat level. These people can go out and gather thoughts of the general public and come back and vote. Whoever wins the local election will get the LS ticket,” he said. The concept, a brainchild of Gandhi, is likely to be implemented in 15 chosen Lok Sabha seats across the country. Ravat said that when Gandhi mentioned his plan for the 15 chosen seats in the meet, he requested Gandhi to consider Vadodara as one of the seats for public opinion in choosing its candidate. Refusing to call the act of taking general consensus and public opinion to choose the party candidate instead of a simple party calculation as the one similar to the practice adopted by Aam Admi Party, Ravat said, “The idea was originally Rahulji’s. He implemented it in the NSUI, when he started the elections there to be able to bring forth leaders through public consensus instead of influence. He is trying to bring in a similar democracy within the party to choose candidates, instead of picking out influential people or lobbyists.” State Congress president Arjun Modhwadia said that choosing a party candidate through an internal election is a pilot project that might be expanded subsequently on a larger scale. “In Gujarat, at least two Congress candidates will be elected by party members to contest the election. This is to avoid charges that candidates are being foisted from above. However, candidates for which seat will be elected this way is yet to be decided,” Modhwadia said.
