Problem of plenty? Not for Congress!

Many party heavyweights sole ticket applicants, other bigwigs pushing their offsprings' cases

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, March 12: The BJP had a problem of plenty when it came to pick its candidates from over 3,000 applications for 126 assembly constituencies.

In contrast, the Congress high command will have to put in much less effort to select its candidates as in more than 50 seats, there has been just a single applicant.

Party sources said in seats like Titabor, Samaguri, Golaghat, Lahorighat, Margherita, Mariani, Diphu etc, only the sitting legislators have applied for tickets.

The party's State election committee today scrutinized the applicants at a meeting held at a city resort. State Congress president Anjan Dutta today flew to New Delhi with the list approved by the State committee, while Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi will go tomorrow. The fil list will be announced by Tuesday after the nod from the Central Election Committee.

After today's meeting, Chief Minister Gogoi said the party, while filizing its list of candidates, will seek to strike a balance between youth and old and dedicated workers.

The Youth Congress has appealed to Rahul Gandhi to set aside 10 seats for youth leaders.

Party sources said those candidates who have lost the last elections by a margin of over 10,000 votes will not get tickets. Also, candidates who lost the last two consecutive elections will not be given tickets.

The sources said Gautam Roy's son Rahul (Algapur), Anjan Dutta's daughter Ankita (Amguri), Paban Singh Ghatowar's son Pranjal (Moran), GC Langthasa's son Nirmalendu and Dr Bhumidhar Barman's son Diganta are almost certain to get party tickets, besides the sitting big-wigs like Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, Rakibul Hussain, Ajanta Neog, zrul Islam, Pradyut Bordoloi, Rupjyoti Kurmi, Bidya Singh Englang and Khorsing Engti.

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