Cong red faced over Bihar ‘caste list’

NEW DELHI: An embarrassed Congress on Friday sought to play down the controversy over its list of candidates for Bihar polls containing their caste names, saying it was an "in-house" exercise that aims at broad basing representation to weaker sections of the society.

"The (controversial) list has not been released at all. The list that we are talking about is part of the in-house exercise for selection of candidates which is a long process," Congress spokesperson Ambika Soni told reporters here.

She said the controversial list must have been leaked from the files of the AICC general secretary in charge of the Bihar Assembly elections and it was "different" from the list officially released by the party.  "Following the amendment in Constitution, we had also amended the party Constitution to give greater representation to weaker sections of the society to provide them a level playing field," Soni said.

The Screening Committee is always instructed to give tickets to keep in this in mind and look for suitable candidates from among women, minorities and backward castes besides the youth, she said.

Adding to the embarrassment, AICC general secretary and chairperson of party's media cell Ambika Soni was in Patna on Thursday to give final touches of the list.

For the first time in the history of the party, the publicised list had categorised the caste of the candidates such as "dhobi", "bhumihar,"  " rajaput",  " brahmin"  and " dalit".

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi also downplayed the leak.

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