'Surveys overlooked in Jharkhand for Congress ticket distribution'

Several Congress leaders claim that the ticket distribution process for the Jharkhand Assembly elections has been faulty, since internal surveys and party reports were overlooked.

- BADAR BASHIR

These leaders allege three top three leaders of the state, in-charge Ghulam Ahmed Mir, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Rameshwar Oraon and the state unit president Keshav Mahto Kamlesh ignored the inputs.

According to insiders, the party had conducted three surveys, one of which was managed by Sunil Konugolu, while another one was conducted by the party itself, and the third one was delegated to an independent surveyor. Yet all the three surveys, according to two senior Congress leaders, were neglected in the distribution of tickets. A senior Congress leader sitting at the AICC alleged that "Konugolu's suggestions were not taken in consideration in Haryana as well." Interestingly, according to these insiders, Jharkhand in-charge Ghulam Ahmed Mir was reprimanded by Rahul Gandhi in a meeting for ignoring important details regarding the ticket distribution. Word is, Mir was scolded for ignoring the "finest" candidate, Shweta Singh, for Dhanbad's Bokaro Assembly constituency.