Rahul Gandhi formula ditched, Congress faces resentment of workers

Resentment is growing among Congress workers in Delhi as the party has selected candidates on the basis of the winnability factor, ignoring the interests of the cadre. Besides, senior leaders say the Rahul Gandhi formula which the party had been following for the past six months has created rifts between MLAs and block-level workers.

During the last six months, the party has been conducting meetings at the block and district levels to  mobilise the workers and ensure that they share a rapport with their MLAs. “In these meetings, the functionaries opened up and registered their grievances against their MLAs. In return, the Congress assured them that only deserving candidates would be given tickets for the elections,” said a Congress worker.

Going by the formula proposed by Rahul, the meetings resulted in making report cards of the candidates. Sources said that less than 30 sitting MLAs scored satisfactorily in the consequent report cards. However, while selecting candidates for the assembly elections, the party’s state leadership gave tickets to all the sitting MLAs, except one, irrespective of what their report cards said.

However, the six-month-long exercise has now created more foes than friends for the MLAs. “In these block meetings, everyone abused each other. The differences of opinion that was so far not so obvious have now become evident,” said the sources.