April 12, 2016
A senior INTUC leader here has suggested the party high command to select candidates for the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly polls by conducting primary elections, as was done in 16 Parliamentary constituencies during 2014.
In a letter to the Congress vice-president, Rahul Gandhi, N. Nanjappan, the leader of the Tamil Nadu Trade Union wing of cement sector of INTUC, said that primary elections ensured that only the meritorious and deserving persons were chosen as Congress candidates.
He requested Rahul Gandhi to instruct the Tamil Nadu Congress committee to prepare the Congress membership register of the 41 constituencies ready, to hand the lists over to the election officers from neighbouring states, to enable them to conduct primaries among the aspirants who had filed their nominations with the PCC (Pradesh Congress Committee), before April 22.
Only those who win in the primary must be announced as candidates, he said, and added that it will “erase ‘quota’ system and encourage your philosophy of giving opportunity to the deserving people.”