Congress biggies told to fight LS polls

​Hyderabad: In a strong move to encourage new blood, the Congress high command asked few senior leaders to contest for the Parliament elections instead of the Assembly polls. The Congress told former MPs not to seek ticket for the Assembly elections and to prepare for the Parliament elections. Leaders of the high command have informally told this to the senior leaders and former MPs. 

Sources in the party said that with this decision, the senior leaders of the party including K Jana Reddy, Ponnala Laxmiah, J Geetha Reddy and few others may have to contest the Parliament elections. In the same way, former MPs including Ponnam Prabhakar, Anjan Kumar, Sarve Satyanarayana and others may be asked not to seek tickets in the next elections to the Assembly. 

Senior leaders of the party said that the high command had taken this decision to encourage the youngsters and new blood in the Assembly elections and to prevent families of the seniors walking away with more than one ticket. 
They said that the high command is keen on implementing one ticket to one family rule so that other aspirants would get opportunity to contest to the Assembly elections. 

The high command may announce the MP candidates at the earliest, before the announcement of the schedule of the Assembly elections, so that they would not seek tickets for the Assembly polls. There is lot of demand from the families of the senior leaders for tickets to their scions and spouses. As many as 11 families have been seeking tickets to their family members. This has been discouraging many aspirants who have been working for the party since few decades. 

Apart from this, efforts of some former MPs to contest to Assembly are also discouraging many. Former MPs Anjan Kumar Yadav, Ponnam Prabhakar and others are raring to contest to the Assembly this time. Sources in the party said that the MPs are also keeping the option to contest the Parliamentary elections open. If they lose the Assembly elections, they would contest in the Parliament elections. 

Leaders of the party said that All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Rahul Gandhi was keen to encourage youngsters in the party and was not so keen on giving opportunity again and again to aged leaders. They said that the leaders who have crossed 70 years may be asked to contest for the Parliamentary elections so that the youngsters could get tickets in their place in their respective Assembly constituencies.