CHENNAI: While major parties are busy finalising and releasing their list of candidates for the Assembly elections, it looks like the Congress will be the last to complete the process.

Unlike regional parties, which finalise their lists here, Congress candidates are selected by the high command in New Delhi. Many aspirants are camping in New Delhi, hoping their "godfathers" will be able to secure them the ticket.

What is puzzling party workers here is the criteria set by the high command for selecting candidates. In other parties, this is done after interviewing the aspirants. But in the Congress, they are asked to submit their application to the TNCC.

With the party not charging a fee, nearly 24,000 applications have been received for the 234 constituencies. For the 48 seats allotted to the Congress there are about 5,000 applications. It is not known whether the high command will go through these applications before selecting candidates.

It had nominated a 21-member election committee under the chairmanship of Union Minister of State G.K. Vasan and a 5-member screening committee led by M.Veerappa Moily, party Working Committee member in-charge of the State unit, for selecting the candidates.

The election committee was to prepare a panel of three names for each constituency allotted to the party and submit it to the screening committee, which would prepare a list of candidates and submit it to the Parliamentary committee for approval.

Individual list

With the high command realising that it will be difficult for the 21-member committee to arrive at a consensus on a three-member panel for each constituency, it has asked the members to submit their individual list to the screening committee, which will finalise the names before submitting the list to the parliamentary committee. After getting the approval of party president Sonia Gandhi the list will be released.

According to party leaders here, the selection of candidates is going to be a Herculean task for the high command as it has to satisfy all the factions. A former TNCC president said the party required at least 1,000 seats to fulfil the aspirations of leaders.

Out of the 48 seats allotted, 18 were represented by Congress MLAs in the last Assembly. A majority of them will be re-nominated, say party leaders.

Senior leaders lament that the State unit has no say in the selection of candidates. It is being used as a "branch post office" by the high command. How can the party develop in such circumstances, they ask.

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