Congress' New Faces and Veteran Reluctance: Dynamics of Candidate Selection

The Congress has made a virtue out of necessity by fielding new faces because many of its well-known and established leaders are unwilling to contest, as seen by its second list of 43 candidates for the Lok Sabha.

K.C. Venugopal, the general secretary in charge of the Congress organization, proudly declared that 25 of the 43 candidates on the second list are under 50 years old, making up 76.7% of the candidates. He hid the uneasiness of the upper echelons of the party leadership regarding the refusal of numerous senior leaders to enter the contest, forcing the party to rely on new faces with a clean image and no political baggage.

Although there is a widespread belief in Congress that the 82 candidates who have been chosen thus far are qualified, there are rumors that the party high command did not get its request for all of its powerful and senior leaders to run in this crucial election. This issue was exposed in the second list. Even though there are an unusually large number of new candidates, announcements for several important constituencies are delayed because veterans are still being convinced to run.

One cannot speculate as to whether the decision of Mallikarjun Kharge and Sonia Gandhi to withdraw from the election due to their advanced age has encouraged other senior leaders to offer similar justifications.

The central leadership in Madhya Pradesh is eager to field formidable opponents against Jyotiraditya Scindia in Guna and Shivraj Singh Chauhan in Vidisha. Reluctant candidates include former chief minister Digvijaya Singh and state president Arun Yadav. Digvijaya wants his domain Rajgarh, while Yadav ostensibly prefers the "safer" Khandwa seat over clashing with Scindia in Guna. He also insists that younger leaders be given an opportunity elsewhere.

At this point, both seats are being held back. Reluctance is also shown by other prominent Madhya Pradeshi leaders including Kamal Nath, Ajay Singh, and Kantilal Bhuria. The veteran chose not to run for Chhindwara, despite the party's desire for him to replace his son, sitting MP Nakul Nath. After losing the most recent Assembly elections, Tarun Bhanot, the finance minister in the Kamal Nath government, declined to run from Jabalpur.

The leadership in Rajasthan preferred that his son Vaibhav, who lost in 2019, run against former chief minister Ashok Gehlot, but the elder statesman choose not to run. "Apart from Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan, Gehlot is a valuable asset for the party," a top leader stated to The Telegraph. Pilot most likely said he lacks the funds to run in a Lok Sabha election, notwithstanding Gehlot's desire to establish his son before entering the race.

Strong Haryana contender Bhupinder Singh Hooda is reportedly hesitant as well because his son is running. The front-runner in Delhi, Ajay Maken, decided to represent Karnataka in the Rajya Sabha.

Some leaders feel that in order to allow the central leadership to put pressure on all senior leaders to run, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi ought to have been the first two names from Amethi and Rae Bareli, respectively.

There are 43 names from Assam, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand that were revealed on Tuesday. In addition to youthful, energetic leaders with a positive reputation, a number of incumbent MLAs have been fielded in Madhya Pradesh. In Alwar, the Congress has matched BJP veteran Bhupendra Yadav against youthful MLA Lalit Yadav. The invitation to run for the Lok Sabha has also been extended to sitting MLAs Brijendra Ola and Harish Chandra Meena. Churu has granted the ticket to BJP MP Rahul Kaswan, who joined the party on Monday.

Three current MLAs from Madhya Pradesh are running for the Lok Sabha.

Gaurav Gogoi's seat has been replaced in Assam. From now on, he will run for Jorhat rather than Kaliabor. Vaibhav, Gehlot's son, will now run in Rajasthan from the Jalore seat rather of the Jodhpur seat. Rohan Gupta, the former head of social media, was sent to Gujarat from Ahmedabad East.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Press Time staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.