But the Congress, which was stung after the last polls when its government fell due to 22 MLAs breaking away, while hoping for a win, is not willing to take any chances. This is why, just ahead of declaring the final list of candidates and meeting for it, Digvijaya Singh’s cryptic and emotional social media post exposed the fissures within the party. He wrote on X that Rajiv Gandhi had put him in charge of ticket distribution ever since he was 38, and he admitted this was the most difficult task. “About 4,000 candidates want tickets but only 230 are selected,” he wrote.
Singh also explained the criteria of selection, which was getting inputs from district-level leaders and seniors. To those who may be disappointed, he dangled the hope of being accommodated in the organisation. But not many are happy with this.
Those who have been denied complain, and some others too have to top leaders in Delhi, that money power and the fiefdom of Digvijaya Singh and Kamal Nath have wreaked havoc with fairness in ticket distribution.
After the first list, many of those disappointed left the party and vowed revenge. For example, Santosh Sharma has protested that new recruit Vikram Mastan was given a ticket to contest against Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Yadvendra Singh resigned as he was not given a ticket from Nagod. Worse, the vice president of the media department Ajay Yadav resigned. He said the party had humiliated the backward groups by not giving him a ticket.
The party claims 65% of tickets have been given to those below 50 years of age. It’s an experiment that Rahul Gandhi wanted and had tried earlier in Bihar’s NSUI polls but failed. Sources say all top leaders have put their minds together to ensure that when the final list comes, rebellion is controlled. One of the biggest challenges is to ensure that the desire for revenge doesn’t hurt the party. But will the rebels bring the Congress down?
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