Congress kicks off nomination for Lok Sabha seats

In the Northeast Delhi and New Delhi Parliamentary constituencies, the candidates will be selected on the basis of primaries, which was announced by the party vice-president Rahul Gandhi at the recently concluded AICC session at Talkatora Stadium.

Senior Congress leader and ex-MLA Mukesh Sharma said that in the other five Parliamentary constituencies, applications can be submitted by February 28. He said the sitting MPs will also have to submit their applications to the DPCC.

A team of party representatives will be visiting the NE seat in the capital and will publish a voter list after consulting the senior party leadership. The voters will comprise the MPs, MLAs, ex-MPs, ex-MLAs, party candidates of the 2013 Delhi Assembly elections, Youth Congress, NSUI leaders and other party office-bearers of the constituency. Earlier, the selection of party candidates did not involve the party office-bearers.

In a press conference held on Wednesday, the returning officer for the exercise, Rajpal Singh Bisht announced the process of candidates’ selection for the NE Delhi seat of the Lok Sabha. “This process will be very transparent and will give voice to most of the party workers,” he said. He said on February 28, scrutiny and nomination process for the New Delhi seat will be completed by 4 pm.

The final name of the candidates will be announced on March 6 and 11 for New Delhi and NE constituency after a process of scrutiny, nomination and convention. The NE and New Delhi are two of the 16 Lok Sabha constituencies, which has been shortlisted for this project.

(The reporters are students of EXIMS, Delhi)