Congress primaries: Maken keen on including New Delhi

Congress general secretary Ajay Maken has urged the party to include his New Delhi seat in the list of primaries to select Lok Sabha candidates.

The party has decided to conduct primaries in about 15 Lok Sabha constituencies across the country in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, a process outlined by party vice president Rahul Gandhi.

Party leaders said representative section of party workers, office bearers and other people of influence, who satisfy certain criteria from these Lok Sabha seats will decide the Congress candidate by participating in a simple voting process.

Any eligible person satisfying clearly laid-down requirements shall be accepted as a candidate for these primaries, the leaders said.

"I have offered/requested party to include my constituency for primaries so that the workers/common man can chose their Lok Sabha candidate," Maken said in a tweet.

Maken won the 2009 Lok Sabha election from New Delhi.

Gandhi had, last month said at the All India Congress Committee meeting that the party will decide candidates on about 15 Lok Sabha seats on the basis of opinion of its grassroots office bearers and workers and added if the idea proved successful, it will be replicated on a larger scale.

Congress leaders said the seats already selected for primaries include Guwahati (Assam), Bhavnagar and Vadodara (Gujarat), Bangalore North and Dakshina Kannada (Karnataka), Indore and Mandsaur (Madhya Pradesh), Aurangabad and Yavatmal-Washim (Maharashtra), Bikaner and Jhunjunu (Rajasthan), Sant Kabir Nagar and Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) and Kolkata (West Bengal).