Bhopal: Buoyed by what many see as an “unexpected” victory in the state assembly election in December 2018, Congress is now working on “Mission 29” in Madhya Pradesh, targeting victory in all the 29 Lok Sabha seats in the state or at least not allowing the BJP to repeat its 2014 performance.Even as chief minister Kamal Nath is going all out to please all sections of the society with barrage of sops, the most serious challenge facing the Congress party is finding suitable candidates for all the 29 Lok Sabha seats. In 2014, the party had managed to win just two seats- Chhindwara and Guna, represented Kamal Nath and Jyotirditya Scindia, the two most prominent party leaders in MP. Congress leadership could have forgotten 2014 general election results as a “nightmare”, but it is aware that it was not in 2014 alone that the party floundered. There are quite a few seats, which the Congress has not won for years, including four major cities - Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior and Jabalpur. However, in the December 2018 state assembly election, Congress was able to make its presence felt in several BJP bastions. In Gwalior, Congress won five out of six assembly segments, in Bhopal three out of seven, in Jabalpur four out of eight and in Indore, the party bagged half the assembly seats. Besides, Vidisha assembly seat, which the Congress had not won for past 46 years, was reclaimed by the party from the saffron party.“There is problem in candidate selection in MP. Since the Congress has not done well in several Lok Sabha seats for the past many elections, you don’t have a definite idea as to who would give BJP a befitting fight even as situation appears favourable for the party right now”, said a senior party leader on the condition of anonymity.Before the central screening committee meeting began in Delhi this week, Kamal Nath had a meeting with party leaders from across the state constituency-wise to get a feedback on probable party candidates. He also asked them to give names of their choice in an envelop. These names would be tallied with names received from three separate surveys instituted by All India Congress Committee (AICC), Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) and Kamal Nath himself and the one who has maximum marks on popularity index would be given ticket, said PCC media vice-president Bhupendra Gupta.“The chief minister has taken feedback from organizational leaders from all over the state. Names received from them would be tallied by names derived from three separate surveys being carried out by the party and based on the popularity index of candidates, tickets would be decided. Suppose, three names are common in all the lists, then the most popular one would be decided by the screening committee through popularity index of each as received from survey groups”, said Gupta.He said the survey teams working for the party are highly experienced, as they have worked for the party in the past and their “strike rate” has been a healthy 70 percent. When asked whether there was any parameter on who could be given ticket or not, he said, “There is only one broad principle- sitting MLAs won’t be given tickets. Otherwise, winnability is the only criteria.”However, there are sceptics in the party who believe that selecting candidates based on objective analysis has never been easy in the faction-ridden Congress party. “One major task before the screening committee is to decide whether party stalwarts, who lost the assembly election despite favourable position, should be given ticket for Lok Sabha and mind you, there are many in this category like Suresh Pachouri, Ajay Singh, Rajendra Singh, Arun Yadav, Mukesh Nayak and Ramniwas Rawat. I know at least, Ajay Singh, Arun Yadav and Rawat’s single name has been recommended by the local leaders from Satna, Khargone and Morena. Can they be denied ticket if the surveys opine otherwise?” asked a senior party leader on the condition of anonymity.LOK SABHA TALLYYear Seats Cong BJP Others2014 29 2 27 02009 29 11 16 12004 29 4 25

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