With the direct intervention by former Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in ticket distribution, uncertainty is looming over the candidature of some senior leaders of the party in Rajasthan. This indication came after the meeting of the Central Election Committee (CEC) held at Congress headquarters. However, sources present in the meeting say that no objection was raised by Rahul Gandhi regarding the panel of candidates.
In the meeting of the CEC, a discussion was held on the panel of possible candidates for 125 seats prepared by the scrutiny committee. There was consensus on one name for most of the seats. For the remaining seats, the screening committee will sit again after 22 October and prepare another panel.
As The Daily Guardian had already said that Congress will release its first list after Priyanka Gandhi visits Rajasthan, the party has also indicated that the first list will be released in a few days. Priyanka is going on a one-day tour to Rajasthan on 20 October, after that, there is a possibility that the party may announce the names of the candidates who are not related to any controversy.
After this visit, there will be another meeting of the screening committee which will prepare a panel on the remaining seats. After this, the Central Election Committee will decide the names for the remaining seats of Rajasthan. In fact, like every time in Rajasthan, there are reports of tussle over many seats.
Ticket seekers from Rajasthan have camped outside the Congress headquarters and Jodhpur House. After the meeting of the Central Election Committee, several reports were coming out. It was reported that Rahul Gandhi was unhappy with the panel of names of sitting MLAs and ministers. The spotlight was on Shanti Dhariwal and those leaders who were given notice on the incident of 25 September 2022. Another piece of information came out that Sonia Gandhi was also not happy with the panels of names from Rajasthan. There was information that the possibility of cancelling the tickets of Sachin Pilot’s supporters is also being discussed.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot went straight to Jodhpur House after the meeting. Everyone remained silent regarding the matter. Rahul Gandhi’s team has conducted surveys on its own. His only effort is to give tickets to those who were found to be strong in his survey. Sonia Gandhi also stressed on this point that leaders who have lost in the past and leaders who are in controversies should not be given any chance. After the meeting, non-controversial leaders who also figured in Rahul’s panel of names were finalised. After the tough stance of Rahul and Sonia, it will be interesting to see whether all the ministers and MLAs manage to get tickets or new faces are made candidates.
