Rajasthan Assembly Elections 2023, Cong turns to ratings, sheds ‘sitting-getting’ formula for poll list

The Congress blueprint seems to have been rejigged for the Rajasthan elections, with the list of candidates likely to be prepared on the basis of their ratings, instead of the traditional practice of sitting legislators getting the tickets by default.

The party is likely to come up with its list of candidates for the November 25 polls on October 18, a day after the Congress Election Committee meet.

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“Congress had always followed the path of ‘sitting-getting’, which means legislators won’t be dropped. Moreover, the tickets were given to people who were allied with a particular camp. The senior leaders in the state would project leaders of their own lobby, but this time the selection is based on people’s response,” says political analyst Rasheed Kidwai.

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The party is likely to drop a substantial number of its MLAs in the desert state to ensure its victory, where the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded its central leadership, setting aside most of the heavyweights.

Dropping MLAs has been a rare practice for the Grand Old Party and this is usually done by the BJP in every Assembly election by bringing in new faces.

According to Congress insiders, the party is clearly focusing on the “winnability” of its candidates and the amount of work they have done on ground. With respect to Rajasthan, where the Congress has as many as 100 MLAs, many leaders have received negative feedback.

The party is focusing on retaining the state and, candidates who have not performed, will not be given the mandate whether from Gehlot or the Pilot camp. The leadership is working on it with due diligence,” said a party leader privy to the selection process.

The Congress has conducted various surveys devised by poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu, who was behind its win in Karnataka, on the choice of candidates and their ratings in their respective constituencies.

It has subsequently gone into the tactic of showing the survey outcome and performance ratings to its leaders, who have been dropped in a bid to pacify them and ensure there is no rebellion.

The party followed the survey results in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh on October 15, where it dropped several sitting MLAs. In its first list of 30 candidates released for Chhattisgarh, the Congress denied tickets to eight of its lawmakers and retained 22 MLAs, including Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and his deputy TS Singh Deo.

In Madhya Pradesh, where it had formed the government in 2018, only to lose power 15 months later, three legislators have been dropped, including former Assembly speaker ND Prajapati.

The party’s central leadership has relied on new faces and fielded thirty-nine candidates, who will be contesting the polls for the first time and thirty-six are the ones who had lost in 2018 polls or in the by-polls in 2020.

The implementation of the new strategy runs the risk of stoking fresh infighting in the party as many leaders who have failed to secure tickets because of poor ratings have begun calling it quits. The whiff of rebellion has come from Congress spokesperson Ajay Singh Yadav from Madhya Pradesh’s Kharagpur constituency, Sharda Khatik from the Naryawali seat and Vivek Yadav from Ujjain.

Similar revolts are expected in Rajasthan as well after sitting legislators will be dropped out. On October 13, senior Congress leader Ponnala Lakshmaiah resigned after an association spanning over four decades amid rising demand for a new face in her constituency.