Making a beeline: 1,500 apply for Congress tickets in Delhi, Delhi assembly poll 2013,Congress tickets in Delhi 2103 election updates, Delhi poll ,Congress candidates, Delhi news, Congress.

 Making a beeline: 1,500 apply for Congress tickets in Delhi.

NEW DELHI: Nearly 1,500 Congress members have applied for tickets to contest from the capital's 70 assembly constituencies in the upcoming elections. When the party's 27-member election committee meets on Tuesday to lay down the norms for candidate selection, it will have to shortlist a panel likely to have up to three choices per constituency.

The clamour for tickets is loudest in Babarpur, Trilokpuri and Sangam Vihar constituencies with more than 60 applicants. All three seats don't have Congress MLAs. Even on the CM's turf - New Delhi-four applications have been received. Senior party members said the rush is a result of the open application process and many who apply are not in the running.

The Congress has 41 sitting MLAs, and for most of these seats there are 4-7 ticket seekers. But on seats held by the opposition parties the application load is higher-around 10 on average.

While "winnability" remains the prime criterion for selection, this time the process will bear the stamp of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's push for giving more power to the "grassroots". The performance of all 41 sitting Congress MLAs will be assessed and suggestions of the party's district and block presidents will be taken into account for candidate selection.

Chief minister Sheila Dikshit, who is on the election committee, made it clear that her MLAs will have to pass the winnability test like the others to get a ticket to contest the assembly polls. "The detailed norms for choosing the candidates will be formalized in the election committee meeting," DPCC chief JP Agarwal said.

"Earlier, we would simply send all the applications to the All India Congress Committee screening committee. But this time, while we will still send all the applications to the screening committee, we have been empowered to also send a shortlist. Each panel will have a minimum of one and maximum of maybe three prospective candidates," the DPCC chief said.

The list of applicants will then go to the AICC screening committee comprising the chief minister, DPCC chief, AICC general secretary in-charge of Delhi, and two other members. They will prepare a final list which will be sent to the Congress central election committee led by Sonia Gandhi.

source:timesofindia

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