3,000 aspirants in race for Congress tickets

Bhubaneswar: Ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha and Odisha Assembly elections, over 3,000 aspirants, including retired bureaucrats and doctors, have shown interest in contesting the twin polls in Congress tickets. This was revealed by Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Sarat Pattnayak here.

While over 2,500 people have applied for Congress tickets for 147 Assembly seats of the State, around 500 others have shown interest in contesting from 21 Lok Sabha seats, Pattnayak said.

The party launched a portal on February 2, where aspirants were asked to apply for Congress tickets online to contest in the upcoming simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Odisha. The candidates were asked to furnish in detail about their activities in constituencies and explain what edge they have over their possible rivals, Pattnayak said.

“This effort is made to bring transparency in ticket distribution and provide an opportunity for all to apply for Congress tickets. We have around 2,500 applicants for 147 Assembly constituencies and around 500 aspirants for 21 Lok Sabha seats,” he said.

The Congress apparently launched the portal in the wake of allegations earlier that party tickets were “sold” and nepotism was adopted by certain leaders while distributing tickets. Doctors and retired IAS officers are among the aspirants, the State Congress chief said.

Pattnayak and Congress’ Odisha in-charge Ajoy Kumar on Saturday met some of the candidates.

“Winnability is our main criteria,” Pattnayak said, adding that the aspirants were given a task which has to be completed within seven days, which will be evaluated by the Congress team. He, however, did not divulge what are the assigned tasks.

February 11 is the last date to apply for a Congress ticket and the applications will be reviewed on the basis of the task, organisation, political works and other

parameters, he said.