Rajasthan Congress Says Candidates To Be Chosen On “Winnability” For 2024 Polls

Lok Sabha candidates will be chosen based on their “winnability” with a focus on young leaders, Rajasthan Pradesh Congress in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said on Wednesday.

“Tickets to contest Lok Sabha elections will be given considering the winnability of the candidate. Our main focus this time will also be on the youth. We will prepare the young leaders because they are our future,” Mr Randhawa told reporters after a party meeting.

A meeting with party MLAs and public representatives was held on Wednesday to take feedback on the preparations for the general elections likely to be held a few months from now.

When asked if sitting MLAs could be given tickets for the Lok Sabha polls, Randhawa said, “If they (BJP) can field MPs in assembly elections then Congress can field its MLAs (for Lok Sabha polls).” Apart from a candidate’s “winnability”, his commitment to the Congress ideology will also be checked, he said, adding that there will be a combination of young and old Congress leaders in the elections.

Targeting the BJP over the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, Mr Randhawa said the saffron party was doing politics in the name of religion.

On being asked about attending the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony, he said the Congress would go to the Ram temple on Ram Navami – the day Lord Ram was born.

“We will go there on the day when the temple is fully completed and the idol is installed. We will go to Ram Navami when Lord Ram was born,” the state Congress in-charge said.

Mr Randhawa said the Congress, as the opposition party in the state assembly, will question the BJP government on its poll promises and ask them why schemes of the previous government were being stopped.

Congress state president Govind Singh Dotasra said the state’s BJP government runs on “slips” from New Delhi. He added that the Congress will perform well in the Lok Sabha elections and that the INDIA alliance will be formed at the Centre.