Rahul wants opinion polls for selecting candidates

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi appears to have taken a leaf out of the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) book. The Gandhi scion said on Saturday that he was planning to conduct opinion polls to select candidates for elections.

Participating in an interaction titled “Opening Up Political Space and Building a New India” with young achievers from across the country, Gandhi is understood to have said he wanted to field “people’s candidates” in the elections. It would be part of an exercise to democratise the party.

Gandhi, however, did not clarify whether opinion polls would be conducted for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. The AAP, which registered an impressive victory in the Delhi Assembly elections, invited public opinion on whether to form a government with the Congress support. 

“The fundamental reason why there is inadequate space for youth in politics is that the processes for entry and promotion are not transparent. The real problem is in the process of selecting the candidates. Does any party ask the people who the candidates from their area should be?” Gandhi asked participants at the interaction. However, he criticised the AAP saying that it was not finding long-term solutions to problems being faced by people.