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'How can we satisfy them all?'

Amberish K Diwanji in New Delhi

It is easy to make out why the Congress leadership is hesitant in bringing out the complete list of candidates for the Lok Sabha and assembly elections. The huge gathering of ticket-seekers, often with supporters shouting themselves hoarse, is daunting enough. But worse is the knowledge that those who feel denied are often a source of defeat for the official candidate.

Thus, it is the fear of the workers' ire that has caused the delay of the lists. While the problem of disaffected workers afflict all major parties, nowhere is it as acute as in the Congress since that is the nation's largest party.

A Congress activist, who hails from Madhya Pradesh, warned that his party faced a rout in the coming election because the top leadership was ignoring the workers. "It is almost as if our contribution counts for nothing. No party that ignored its own workers has ever won an election," he said angrily.

The workers complain that the present leadership has ignored their wishes while nominating candidates, both for the Lok Sabha and the assembly. "This is the failure of the leaders who surround Sonia Gandhi, who are busy promoting their favourites rather than choosing candidates whom the workers support and root for," the activist added.

Congress general secretary Oscar Fernandes admitted that disgruntled workers were a problem, but pointed out that everyone cannot be satisfied. "After all, there are a limited number of Lok Sabha and assembly seats and many more workers, so there will always remain some who are unhappy. This applies to all parties," he said.

BJP spokesperson J B Mathur also said that the party headquarters had been deluged with hopefuls. "How can we satisfy them all?" he asked, "And yet, everyone has very good reasons on why he alone should be nominated vis-à-vis other candidates. At some point, we just have to turn them away."

In fact, as he was speaking, some BJP workers entered the room, seeking a nomination for their leader from a Haryana seat. "In a particular constituency, there are many Punjabis so the party must nominate a Punjabi candidate," the workers said. Of course, their leader was a Punjabi!

"Yet, while the Punjabi vote is important, surely the party cannot ignore the other people," said Mathur after the BJP workers had gone.

Workers often complain of nepotism and favouritism in the selection of candidates. "In the Bharatiya Janata Party, the favoured ones are those who hail from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or close to it. Everyone knows that and it is no secret that to get a BJP ticket, it helps to have an RSS connection. But in the Congress, it really depends on your proximity to the top leadership and this gives rise to sycophancy that invariably hurts the party," the Congress activist said.

He pointed out how the party invariably gave nominations to the kith and kin of top leaders, even if they were not strong candidates. "All this can only demoralise the party workers who have worked for years and also desire to be given a nomination," he added.

Fernandes agreed that nominating the relatives of the top leaders or relatives of those who have died, was a pernicious practise. "We in the Congress are trying hard to stop this trend and in fact insist that every relative who seeks a nomination must have an independent political standing. But if a famous leader from a particular seat dies, then his immediate family has a lot of sympathy that can help any family member win the same seat. That is why we often nominate a family member of a deceased leader," he said.

Mathur disagreed that his party showed a bias towards candidates with particular affiliations. "Every party wants to win, and frankly the ability to win in that constituency and also perhaps influence other constituencies is the bottomline," he emphasised, "Certainly every party only sees that."

Fernandes stated that the leadership followed a strict policy while giving out nominations, which incorporated various factors. "We have to see the candidates stature, caste, regional background, his ability to galvanise the people, and such factors. Nominating candidates is a very deliberate process," he insisted.

He also added that often grassroot workers missed the woods for the trees. "A worker will see from his narrow perspective, keeping in mind only his constituency or village. But we have to see the whole set-up, and often play a balancing act between various constituencies," he said.

The balancing involves the upper castes, the lower castes, minorities, scheduled castes and tribes and so forth. The difficult task is retaining the workers' loyalty even if the candidates nominated are not the workers' choice. After all, workers do have the ability to hurt a potential victor.

But there is no doubt that there are very few grassroot workers who have risen to the top. Invariably, there is a glass ceiling that keeps Lok Sabha nominees separate from the hundreds of workers who ensure their victory.

"If you take a survey, you will find that ninety five per cent of those nominated come from the top, never from the roots. This separation has ensured the Congress party's defeat in the past elections," the activist complained bitterly.

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