All India Congress Committee puts ball in TPCC court to rein in lobbying in Delhi

Hyderabad: All India Congress Committee (AICC) has entrusted the responsibility of selection of candidates for Lok Sabha elections to Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) to ensure that there is no delay in announcing the list of nominees. It is also intended to put an end to lobbying for party ticket in Delhi.

According to sources, the AICC has taken the decision at a recent meeting held to review the preparations for Lok Sabha elections, scheduled to be held in April and May. The TPCC will select candidates in Hyderabad and send the list to the high command for announcement. The AICC has given clear instructions to the TPCC leaders in this regard.

Party leaders said the move is aimed at avoiding the mess-up witnessed in the run-up to the Assembly polls in December, last year. There was inordinate delay in announcing candidates in the Assembly elections.

In the selection of the candidates for the Assembly polls, the AICC had adopted a four-step selection process. In the first step the TPCC was asked to select few names for each constituency, in second step, the list was sent to the AICC selection panel for scrutiny, in the third step, the panel shortlisted the candidates and submitted the names to the core committee.

The fourth step, the core committee submitted the list with its recommendations to the AICC president for finalisation of the names and also for announcement.

The Congress began selection of candidates in September of 2018 and the process continued till November 19. It led to wasting of precious time for the party candidates to launch campaign.

The aspirants were given a scope to approach the leaders involved in the four steps for lobbying. Apart from Hyderabad the aspirants went to Delhi to get party ticket.

This has messed up the selection process and the sitting MLAs and former MLAs were also kept in waiting for the official announcement of the candidates from Delhi for weeks together. The selection process had received lot of criticism.

True to the saying that too many cooks spoil the broth, too many leaders messed up the entire process of selection of candidates in the Assembly elections, a senior leader said. This had also led to other parties ridiculing the Congress leaders of depending on high command in Delhi for selection of candidates for Assembly elections.

Keeping this in view, the AICC entrusted the job to the TPCC as far as selection of candidates for Lok Sabha elections are concerned. According to party leaders, the AICC may not entertain visit of the State leaders to Delhi to seek party ticket and to influence the State leadership. Those, who may try to lobby the AICC, will be asked to meet the TPCC leaders, the sources said.