Congress panel recommends one ticket per family

New Delhi: To attract young talent to the party, a Congress sub group has recommended to give only one ticket per family so that big leaders do not corner party tickets and deny a place to the genuine hard workers. However, the party recently flouted this rule in Goa and Uttarakhand. In the hill state, former chief minister Harish Rawat and his daughter were given tickets, and the senior Rawat lost in the polls; Yashpal Arya and his son were also given tickets, son Sanjeev Arya lost; former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi contested from two seats and lost both. The other recommendation is to expand the social base and give reservations to the SC/ST and marginalised OBC. The CWC will take a view on Monday evening and deliberate in the brainstorming session.

To increase the vote share, the Congress has decided to focus on increasing its social base and reach out to the groups which have not found place in the party apparatus, sources have said.

The BJP in Uttar Pradesh has been successful in weaning away the non Jatavs from the BSP, which is helping them immensely in expanding their vote base. Taking a cue from this, the party wants to similarly increase its social base in each state, add more people and expand its vote share which has been declining since 2014.