Congress workers demand 2014 poll candidates' name to be announced at the earliest

Call for strengthening organisational structure at the booth-level also raised during the meeting with PCC chief

Congress workers of Uttar Pradesh want the party high command to declare the names of the candidates for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections as soon as possible.

With the Samajwadi Party as well as the Bahujan Samaj Party having already declared most of their candidates for the next general elections, the Congress workers feel that the party should not lag behind.

"The general opinion among party workers is that the candidates for the 2014 (Lok Sabha) elections be declared as soon as possible," said Congress state president Nirmal Khatri.

He said this on Sunday after meeting all the party candidates who lost in the 2012 Assembly elections. Nearly 150 party nominees attended Sunday's meeting which was called to identify the weaknesses and the strengths of the party unit.

Earlier, Congress general secretary in charge of UP Digvijaya Singh too had raised a similar demand. He had called for declaring the candidates for UP one year in advance.

During the seven-hour long marathon meeting, many nominees raised the issue of internal sabotage and opposition during the elections that led to their defeat.

Those denied tickets and turncoats from other parties, who were given Congress ticket, were cited as the reasons for "internal sabotage".

Terming it as an issue of coordination, Khatri asked party workers to respect the party's choice of candidates and to deal with larger issues at hand, such as promoting Centre's schemes and ensuring their implementation at the local level.

"Rather than focusing on the past, we should focus on building the new," said CLP leader Pradeep Mathur, asking the nominees to send the details of any local issues to the state unit and to him so that he could then raise the issues in the Assembly.

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