Shimla: Even as the congress’s central selection committee prepares to shortlist prospective candidates on Sunday, ticket aspirants have sounded a warning saying that if denied a ticket this time around they were willing to jump into the fray with or without the party’s backing.
At a conference call Rajeshwar Negi, a former IPS officer who resigned ten years ago to enter public life said “the congress old guard mindset needed to change if it has to survive with the times.”
Seeing the same set of people contest elections year after year, public fatigue was setting in and to overcome anti- incumbency new faces needed to inducted.
Fifty percent tickets be allotted to the youth and woman candidates as they have become marginalized groups in the party,” said Negi. It was an opportune time for the party to put out new faces from different walks of life as the older lot were developing cold feet and one by one were withdrawing from contesting, he added.
Negi heads the All India Minorities & Social Welfare Council and has staked a claim for the Shimla seat. Presently the seat is represented by Harbhajan Singh Bhajji of the congress, who is considered close to Anand Sharma, union minister for state for external affairs.
He said that in the name of youth, allotting tickets to sons of older leaders was a farce on democracy. The party is getting monopolized in the hands of select families, he said. Negi maintained that he would contest the election from the Shimla seat whether the party allotted him a ticket or not.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads the team of media professionals at Hill Post.
In a career spanning over two decades through all formats of journalism in Electronic, Print and Online Media, he brings with him enough experience to steer this platform. He lives in Shimla.
