Emboldened by the Karnataka experiment, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is taking help of independent agencies to seek “frank” opinion on winnability of the shortlisted candidates for the next Lok Sabha elections. The experiment, which is in addition to the feedback generated from the political channel, was first tried at the state level for the Karnataka Assembly elections.
Mr Gandhi, sources said, is institutionalising the candidate selection process for the Lok Sabha polls and state elections due this year. “The effort is to free the candidate selection process from banking only on inputs given by the political leaders and the Pradesh Congress Committees (PCCs). Independent agencies not associated with the party have been roped in to gather field-based information on candidates who figure in the list of short-listed nominees likely to contest the next Lok Sabha elections,” said a senior Congress functionary.
The Congress is in the process of drawing up a list of three short-listed candidates in all the states for the next Lok Sabha elections based on the feedback of the party observers and PCCs. “In a number of states, the list is ready, which is being shared with independent agencies for their ground-based information on winnability of candidates based on a number of local factors. The purpose is to make the candidate selection professional and there are clear indications that it will become the norms now onwards,” the party functionary added.
Not only selection of the candidates for the Lok Sabha elections but it has been learnt that the independent agencies have also been outsourced the job to report on the constituency performance of the sitting party MPs.
Mr Gandhi, who during his earlier stints being in-charge of the Youth Congress and NSUI, appears to take comforts from the “frank” views shared by the independent agencies on political matters based on the grassroots feedback.