The Bihar unit of the Congress is finding it difficult select candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections from among its own cadre. This is because the party is left only with old committed workers, who have lost their political relevance, and those youth, who drew their inspiration to join politics from AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
Since the Congress has decided to go it alone this time in Bihar and to contest all the 243 Assembly seats, the high command had sent a team of 15 Central observers to the state to assess the party’s fortune vis-à-vis the ground realities. “The report of the observers revealed that suitable among the party members, who could contest elections are either over-age or under-age. The observers report said that core Congressmen in Bihar are either in their 70s or in 20s,” sources in the party said.
For the party being out of power for almost two decades, the old guard of the party have lost their political relevance in the state and the young men still need to work to prepare electoral grounds for them, a senior Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) leader said, adding that this has left no option before the leadership but to allow “habitual party hoppers” to grab Congress tickets for the upcoming assembly elections.
“No doubt, in the last Assembly byelections, our vote base in the state has gone up. Out of 17 seats, which went for polls, we could manage to win two and came second on three seats. So, if we put up winning candidates, our chances are good,” the leader said. “We are following Rahulji’s prescription and set in motion a five tier candidate selection process and hope to get formidable candidates from among us. But if that does not happen we will not dither taking in from outside,” the leader added.