Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President Capt Amarinder Singh today said that the winnablity was the only criterion for choosing the candidates for the assembly elections. Besides, he added, the party had ensured that the tickets were distributed according to the population ratio of the state.Addressing a press conference here today, Capt Amarinder disclosed that the party gave adequate representation to the youth and the women with 24 of the candidates being less than 45 years of age. Besides, he added, the party had fielded 36 fresh faces in this election.Maintaining that the final decision was taken by the Central Election Committee headed by the Congress President Ms Sonia Gandhi, Capt Amarinder said, the decision was taken in the larger interest of the party. He agreed that at some places there were more than one deserving and winning candidates. “It was really a difficult choice to make as only one candidate could be fielded by the party”, he pointed out.
The PCC President did not agree that there was large scale rebellion among those who did not get the party nomination. He said, “yes there are some initial reactions which will calm down with due course of time”. He pointed out, it is natural for people to react when they expect that government is being formed and they could be part of it. At the same time he assured that all those deserving candidates who could not be allotted the party tickets will be suitably adjusted when the Congress forms the government after elections.He also announced that the party had constituted a team headed by former MLA Ramesh Singla which will talk to those who are feeling upset about not getting the tickets. He said, if the need be, he may speak to some of them personally as well. He hoped that each and every leader abides by the party discipline as all the candidates belong to the party and opposing them will mean violation of the party discipline.