New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi's experiment of selecting candidates through primary system will not work in Uttar Pradesh, a senior party leader from the state today said and claimed that the party's campaigning for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls was not on the right track in the state.
Union minister Beni Prasad Verma said Congress will win as many as 50 seats if tickets are distributed properly and “campaigning is done properly.
Verma warned the party against selecting candidates the way it was done in the the previous elections, which he claimed had harmed the party.
“Rahul Gandhi's initiative is pure, it is democratic. But environment in Uttar Pradesh is not conducive to follow this system to select the candidates,” he told reporters today.
Claiming that his party has the largest support base in the state as well as support of the 20 per cent Muslim population, Verma said Congress will win as many as 50 seats “if tickets are distributed properly and campaigning is done properly”.
“If tickets are distributed the way they were done last time, we cannot do anything, but if tickets are distributed properly and honestly, I can guarantee that Congress will win 50 seats from UP. 20 per cent Muslims are looking at us,” he said.
“We pre-warn our leadership. Last time, we said Congress will win at least 30 seats, but Congress did not contest properly and did not contest in 18 seats. It contested from 58 seats and won from 22 seats,” he said.
He warned the Congress leadership against falling prey to whims of tall party leaders in Uttar Pradesh in ticket distribution in the state.
Slamming BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and his remarks to oust Congress from the country, he said that “Congress cannot be defeated as it is in the DNA of the country”.
