Delhi civic polls: Cong sets up call centre to check credibility of aspirants

To ensure that only leaders with grass root level support get tickets for the upcoming municipal polls, the Delhi Congress has set up a call centre to cross-check their claims and credibility among party workers.

The party has sought applications from ticket seekers with five references from each polling booth. On an average, each ward has around 45 such booths. Therefore, each candidate has to give around 200 references.

“All references will be contacted through a calling agent to know their feedback about every candidate. They will be asked certain questions and will verify information furnished by an individual with the application. A dedicated call centre has been set up by the party. All calls will be recorded,” said Delhi congress chief Ajay Maken.

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A senior party functionary said party volunteers have been given special training for the purpose and provided with a set of questions.

“All sitting councillors in the three municipal corporations are likely to get tickets this time too, however, the final call will be taken on the basis of feedback from party workers,” he said.

“A message has been conveyed to all sitting councillors that they will be given the tickets. If the character of their wards has changed post delimitation or reservation (SC/ women) of seats, they can suggest names of their family members. The party will give due consideration to their suggestions,” he said.

In the three corporations, the Congress has 88 councillors.

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Earlier, the party had set February 15 as the deadline to submit applications for the election tickets, however, the deadline was extended to February 19.

Another party leader said the date was changed due to overwhelming response from the ticket seekers.

“We have deployed eight persons who were accepting applications manually at party’s state headquarters. It was a time consuming process so we asked applicants to submit the form digitally. Due to heavy rush, we have decided to deploy a separate person for document collection for all 14 districts,” he said.

He added that the applications are being put in sealed boxes and will be opened once the process of receiving claims is over. “We can’t give you numbers at present as applications are kept in sealed boxes. Exact figure will be known when the boxes will be unsealed for scrutiny,” the Congress leader said.