Rahul Gandhi`s `primaries` plan will end `high command culture`: Congress

Rahul Gandhi`s "primaries" experiment for candidate selection is being hailed as plan to "end high command culture" that could pave way for direct election of Congress Working Committee.

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi`s "primaries" experiment for candidate selection is being hailed as a plan to "end the high command culture" that could pave the way for direct election of even the all-powerful Congress Working Committee. Party general secretary Ajay Maken said that in the later stages of opening up of the system, even the office bearers of CWC could be elected through direct feedback from party workers and so could be the fate of chief ministers in states.

The last contest witnessed for CWC, the highest policy making body was in 1997 at the AICC plenary at Kolkata when the late Sitaram Kesri was the party chief. Giving broad indications that Rahul plans to shake up the existing system of appointment of office bearers as well as the nomination of candidates for all elections, Maken said, "The idea is to ensure that a common worker has a say in decision making even at the top levels." He also reminded that 79.4 lakh members were enrolled in Youth Congress and 504000 office bearers were elected as per transparency plan of Gandhi. To a question as to whether even chief ministers could be elected through feedback from office bearers, Maken said, "That is what he eventually plans to do but all of this will be after Lok Sabha elections." In an indication of party leaders falling in line to Rahul`s "primaries" plan was evident when in a party meeting all seven Congress MPs from Delhi expressed their willingness to undergo the process, that could begin a race among Congress MPs to offer their Parliamentary seats the new experiment. A senior party functionary speaking on the condition of anonymity said that the exercise would be completed by February 15 or 16 and candidates will be announced for these seats, whose number could vary between 15 and 17. Sources said that in a meeting held at the residence of senior party Ghulam Nabi Azad, all seven Delhi MPs including Union ministers Kapil Sibal and Krishna Tirath said they wanted candidate selection in their seats through primaries. Sibal and Tirath had earlier expressed reservations to the party leadership over the manner in which only their seats Chandni Chowk and North West Delhi were picked up for holding primaries out of the total seven Parliamentary seats.