Congress to follow
‘one family-one ticket’ policy which may
jeopardise nomination opportunities
for many leaders and
their juniors
Bhubaneswar: In a bid to put a full stop on all speculations over distribution of tickets to sons and relatives of many senior leaders, Odisha Congress in-charge Jitender Singh made it clear Thursday the party will not give more than one ticket per family for the upcoming polls.
Talking to media persons here at the Congress Bhawan, Singh said the party will follow the ‘one ticket, one family’ policy for the upcoming Odisha Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
He said, after being nominated, if the concerned person decides not to contest, he or she has the option to pass on the baton to his/her son or daughter.
The Congress leader further said the party has decided to give maximum tickets to women, youth and fresh faces. “Considering that the populace in Odisha comprise close to 50 per cent in the youth segment, the Congress feels it is necessary to give maximum opportunity to them to represent their constituencies,” he added.
If this statement of Singh holds good during the nomination, many senior leaders of the party including state president Niranjan Patnaik, Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra, Bhakta Charan Das and Jaydev Jena will fail to project their sons in the upcoming elections.
Similarly, some others leaders like former PCC president Prasad Harichandan and Congress chief whip Taraprasad Bahinipati, whose family members’ names are doing the rounds will also get rejected.
While Niranjan ruled out the media reports on the list of probable Congress candidates, Jaydev Jena and his son welcomed the decision of the party-‘one family- one ticket’ policy.
“If the party will say only one person of a particular family can contest, it will either be me or my son who will contest the polls. If Rahul Gandhi will ask both of us to contest, we will do so,” Jaydev said. His son Sangram has also made similar comment.
However, questions cropped up after Singh made the particular statement because speculation is rife that many senior Congress leaders along with his/her family member especially sons may contest the poll.
The Pradesh Election Committee (PEC) has finalised a list and sent it to the Central Election Committee (CEC) of All India Congress Committee (AICC). The party is likely to announce names of candidates by the middle of this month.