Assembly Elections 2023: Congress relies on surveys to curb internal tussles over ticket distribution

Assembly Elections 2023: This has been a first in years for Congress to wait till the last minute for the declaration of its candidates due to an imminent threat of a rebellion by the ticket hopefuls.

When the Congress released its first list of 144 candidates for the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections on the first day of Navratri festival on October 15, it came as a surprise to many. This was clearly a first in years for the grand old party that would usually wait till the last minute for the declaration of its candidates due to an imminent threat of a rebellion by the ticket hopefuls.

Smooth Ticket Distribution In Madhya Pradesh

How did this happen? The state unit had put before the party's central election committee (CEC) a list that had single names and it took the high-profile panel just a few minutes to select the candidates.

MP Congress president Kamal Nath and former chief minister Digvijaya Singh had successfully eliminated much of the competition in a joint operation.

The other state satraps were tamed and cut to size by the two. Their influence too had waned in the past few years.  Nath initially did try to fix Digvijaya Singh but failed, eventually forcing the two to join hands.

On October 19 late evening, the party released its second list of 85 candidates, besides replacing three earlier announced contestants due to protests in their constituencies. The Congress was thus forced to field three candidates who had been otherwise dropped on the first list.

The major hurdle had now been crossed though sporadic incidents of protests were reported from some parts of the state. However, no major controversy had erupted due to the ticket distribution. For that, Nath and his team had for the past 2-3 years conducted several surveys in all the 230 constituencies of the state assembly, identifying potential winnable candidates.

That made the task easier for the leadership as about 60-70 percent of the candidates were given tickets based on the outcome of those surveys.  This time, the exit of Jyotiraditya Scindia (he had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in March 2020) had minimised the tussle within the Congress over the candidate selection from the Chambal-Gwalior region. Scindia had always dominated the ticket distribution from the region till his resignation. In these elections, Digvijaya Singh took complete control of the region.

Chhattisgarh: Spot Visits, Surveys, Benching Sitting MLAs

A new experiment was witnessed in neighbouring Chhattisgarh where the Congress for the first time rushed its screening committee members to districts for an on-the-spot meeting with applicants or potential candidates and taking feedback from the ground. Previously, aspirants would go to the state capital or Delhi and waste a lot of time lobbying for their tickets.

Parallel surveys were conducted by chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, the state unit and the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) after which 22 of the 71 sitting legislators were benched to cut the anti-incumbency against them and the party in their constituencies.

The names of candidates on all the 90 seats were released in three lists in which a fine balance was maintained between Baghel and his party rival TS Singhdeo who were embroiled in a power tussle ever since the Congress came to power in 2018. It is just before the elections that the two buried the hatchet with Singhdeo being promoted as the deputy chief minister.

Rajasthan: Tale Of Two Clashing Surveys

Moving to Rajasthan, a battle of one-upmanship between two so-called poll strategists is said to be the apparent cause of delay in finalising the list of Congress candidates on all the 200 seats. This party seems to be caught in the crossfire between poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu and DesignBoxed, a political consultancy firm.

For the unversed, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on the recommendations of Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar had hired DesignBoxed to enhance his campaign. Shivakumar had personally engaged the services of DesignBoxed for his brand building on the suggestion of party general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala. The firm had also worked for former Rajasthan deputy chief minister and Gehlot's bete noire Sachin Pilot.

Apart from Gehlot's brand building, the agency also conducted surveys of potential Congress candidates.  After Gehlot's populist budget, DesignBoxed installed hoardings across Jaipur and other parts of the desert state highlighting the chief minister's welfare schemes.

These hoardings with the pictures of only Gehlot had angered Rajasthan Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra and in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa who insisted that photographs of party's national president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi too should have been there.

When the complaints of the apparent mishandling of the campaign by DesignBoxed reached Rahul Gandhi, he asked Gehlot to take the services of Kanugolu, who is already looking after the Congress party's election campaign and political strategy in many states as well as the national level. However, Gehlot continued to retain the services of DesignBoxed much against the wishes of the Congress leadership.

In the meantime, Kanugolu conducted a survey of potential candidates on all the 200 seats in the state and handed over his list to Congress general secretary in-charge of organisation KC Venugopal who in turn asked Gehlot to consider the names suggested by the poll strategist.

Protracted Wrangle Over Three Gehlot Loyalists

The Congress high command also wanted to send a stern message and deny renomination to those who had indulged in indiscipline and defied its directive last year. Among them are three die-hard Gehlot loyalists Shanti Kumar Dhaliwal (parliamentary affairs minister), Mohan Joshi (state chief whip) and Dharmendra Rathore (Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation chairman).

They were the architects of holding a parallel gathering to the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting that was called on September 25 last year to elect Gehlot’s successor and pave the way for him to file the nomination papers for the party president’s election. However, 92 legislators threatened to resign if anyone involved in the 2020 failed coup against Gehlot is given the reins of the government, pointing to Pilot who was then all set to take over as the next chief minister.

The developments changed much in the Congress as its high command backed senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge for the party president’s post. Kharge comprehensively defeated Shashi Tharoor to assume the reins of the grand old party in October 2022.

In the three lists released so far, the party has declared 95 candidates and the names of Dhariwal, Joshi and Rathore were missing from these though Gehlot is said to be pushing hard for their candidature.

Telangana: Old Guard Or Winnability

In Telangana, the Congress has announced candidates for 100 of the total 119 seats so far. It has fielded as many as 28 leaders who had recently defected to the Congress from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the BJP, causing resentment among its loyalists.

In one of the meetings, there was a heated argument between Telangana Congress Chief A Revanth Reddy and his predecessor N Uttam Kumar Reddy over preference being given to new entrants over loyal leaders in the ticket distribution.

Uttam Kumar Reddy insisted that the old guard, loyal leaders and the younger generation should be given the opportunities, while Revanth argued that the selection of candidates should be based merely on survey reports and the winnability factor.

Aurangzeb Naqshbandi is a senior journalist who has been covering the Congress for 15 years, and is currently associated with Pixstory. Views are personal, and do not represent the stance of this publication.