With the All India Congress Committee (AICC) Vice-President Rahul Gandhi keen on bringing in youth into politics, members of the Karnataka Pradesh Youth Congress are confident that they will get a fair deal as far as ticket distribution is concerned for the Lok Sabha polls.
Four Youth Congress members from the State, who are aspiring to contest the elections, were interviewed by Mr. Gandhi’s team a month ago.
These aspirants, and 80 others from across the country, have submitted a five-page Potential Candidate Information Sheet, a questionnaire that has been framed to assess the candidates’ ability to fight an election.
One of the aspirants, Rizwan Arshad, who retained his post as the president of the Karnataka Pradesh Youth Congress recently, is vying for party ticket to contest from Bangalore Central constituency. “Unlike in the past, the screening committee of the AICC has youth leaders as members. This itself is encouraging as we have representation in the screening committee,” Mr. Arshad told The Hindu here on Sunday.
“Mr. Gandhi has put in place a systematic process of selection of candidates. Through this questionnaire, we got an opportunity for self-appraisal. We are confident the younger generation will get a good representation in the final list of party candidates,” he said.
Although veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister C.K. Jaffer Sharief is also vying for ticket from Bangalore Central, Mr. Arshad is hopeful of getting a chance as the Congress is moving in the direction of getting more youngsters into Parliament.
Basavanagouda Badarli, who is aiming for ticket to contest from Koppal, said that the new system of selection of candidates was beneficial to young candidates.
“Although two former MLAs, including Amaregouda Baipur, are also vying for party ticket, I am confident of being selected as 50 per cent of voters in my constituency are youth,” he said.
Yogesh H.C., son of the former legislator Chandrashekarappa, and Mohan Asundi are eyeing for party ticket to contest from Shimoga and Dharwad, respectively.
With the former MP Manjunath Konnur and the former Minister A.M. Hindasgeri also trying for ticket from Dharwad, Mr. Asundi has a challenging task ahead.
The same is the case with Mr. Yogesh as the former KPCC general secretary Manjunath Bhandari and the former Minister Kumar Bangarappa are also in the race.
