No policy on multiple tickets to one family: Brar

PANAJI: There is no hard-and-fast rule in the Congress party on allotting more then one ticket to one family and this will depend on the "ground realities", on "the circumstances" and recommendations of the Congress election committee of any particular state, AICC general secretary Jagmeet Singh Brar said on Wednesday.
Speaking to TOI from Delhi, Brar clarified that "not even one person in Goa has yet been assured of any ticket" for the next assembly elections.
Against the backdrop of many leading Goan politicians seeking to field their kin on Congress tickets, TOI asked Brar about the Congress policy on allotment of multiple tickets to one family, Brar said there is "no hard-and-fast rule" and that this is state-specific. He said such a policy has yet to be decided by the Congress and that a "long and deep exercise has to be done" when people ask for multiple tickets to consider the winning chances of the candidates.
While ticket-allotment criteria remains uncertain, the Congress in Goa is certainly gearing to fight the elections. Brar said some of the first such public meetings were organized recently in Sattari taluka by health minister Vishwajit Rane. "The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) is working on preparing the blue-print for mass contact programmes, for the flagship programme advertisements and other public meetings in Goa," Brar said.
On whether Congress in Goa would still hold on to their alliance partners in view of the rising sentiment among local Congressmen to fight the elections alone, Brar said the alliance partners had been very kind to the Congress during the recent Rajya Sabha elections as they voted for the Congress candidate. "Definitely, our endeavour will be for an alliance with our partners. But then, this has to be recommended by the GPCC," Brar said.
On Congress unity in view of the recent happenings where the Alemao brothers threatened to quit over the disqualification of Churchill Alemao's daughter Valanka, Brar said, "The Congress is fully united. There is no such thing as disunity in the party. They have obeyed the party and withdrawn their resignations. The party has emerged stronger from all this," Brar said.