Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot (file pic)
Barely a week after taking over the Rajasthan Congress, Union Minister Sachin Pilot is set to launch an experimental drive in the state. Called the "Congress Primaries", the campaign is largely based on the democratic process followed in the US presidential elections, where Congress workers along with bodies like the Chartered Accountants Association will vote for the party's candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, due by May.
In the next 15 days, the Congress candidates for the constituencies of Bikaner and Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan will be decided through a vote. According to sources, the Congress has picked 15 such constituencies, including Vadodara and Bhavnagar in Gujarat, where the Lok Sabha candidates will be picked through voting.
The 'Congress Primaries' is a brainchild of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who spoke about it at the All India Congress Committee meeting on January 17. Mr Pilot, who is known to be close to the Congress No. 2, will now launch the drive from Rajasthan with less than three months to go for the national elections.
"There are forty political parties in Parliament but nobody has come up with such an experiment. I can also say that even (Arvind) Kejriwal, who recently won the vidhan sabha elections in Delhi, did not ask his party workers who should be their candidate," Mr Pilot said.
The Congress initiative comes a month after it was routed in four states, including Rajasthan. In Delhi, the 15-year-old Congress government was replaced by Mr Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which made a spectacular debut winning 28 out of 70 seats. AAP will also contest the Lok Sabha polls, and many say the elections is likely to be a three-way contest between Mr Kejriwal's year-old party, the BJP and the ruling Congress.