When a staggering 800 aspirants squabble over 39 seats even in a State like Tamil Nadu, where the grand old party is not exactly hoping to sweep the polls, the leadership needs a powerful filter.

In the suitably understated personality of Madhusudan Mistry, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi has found exactly the kind of screen he needs to sift through the candidates.

But for this quietly efficient leader from Gujarat, the process of candidate selection would have been a nightmare, just like in previous elections.

But this time, much ahead of the general elections, the Congress has announced half of its candidates.

Some senior leaders are still sulking and minor quibbles abound but there is clarity at least on one issue — that the leadership will not experiment with surprise elements and will go mostly with sitting MPs and runners-up in most of the constituencies.

Vital link

Sixty-nine-year-old Mistry, who spends his pastime reading and trekking, is the link between the State Congress units and the high command. “We work on a hope, on a hope that the Congress will field us one day. This year, it is Mistryji who ensures that this ‘hope’ is alive in the ticket seekers, those who got the tickets and those who were denied it,” a senior leader who got a ticket told Business Line .

The process is like this: the State units send their list to Mistry. He distributes this list to the screening committees of the respective States.

They report back to Mistry, who then makes a constituency-wise presentation before the Central Election Committee, chaired by Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Closeness to Rahul Gandhi

Those denied the ticket queue up in front of Mistry’s office and at the offices of other Central Election Committee members.

Mistry patiently hears them out, noting down complaints and lending a shoulder to weep on, as required. Mistry’s access and closeness to Rahul and his experience in Gujarat, particularly in understanding and fighting Narendra Modi, have fine-tuned his ability to spot the right candidates. A senior Congress leader insists that the party’s tally will not be as bad as being projected by the media, and the Opposition will not get as many seats as being shown by surveys.

The party is all set to enter the campaign field by throwing up a comparison between former prime minister AB Vajpayee and Modi.

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