The realization has set in and the mission is on. Congress will soon declare candidates for the Lok Sabha polls. The announcement from Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is welcomed by senior party leaders. After call attention from several quarters, the party is now on a fast track to expedite its campaign plans.

While the ticket distribution every year causes tension among party members, this time round the process has been streamlined and a new mechanism is in place. Rahul Gandhi is himself leading the process and wants peoples’ voice to reflect in Congress. The AK Antony committee, entrusted with responsibility to form an action plan for 2014 general election, has come out with recommendations which are soon to be carried out. Early declaration of candidates is one such recommendation to give at least three to four months’ time to prepare for the election and campaign intensively in their respective constituencies.

The party has come up with formal structures for the process whereby screening committees of all states and union territories have been assigned new chairpersons. The idea is to expedite the selection process and give importance to common man in all levels of political processes including choice of the candidates.

It seems that the party has taken lessons from past experiences and is not ready to make any compromises for this general election. Candidates with proven track record with chances of winning this election season, are natural qualifiers. The highlight is that the candidates with criminal records will not be given chance to fight this election. The party is expected to come out with a list of 150-200 candidates by end of January. The idea of transparency in poll ticket distribution is a welcome change. It also seems that he wants to reform the current arrangement of dual power at the Centre whereby Sonia Gandhi is UPA Chairperson and Manmohan Singh is the Prime Minister.

This is precisely why Rahul Gandhi has already made it clear that those willing to fight Lok Sabha elections would have to give up the party responsibilities. Promoting clean politics is only in Congress’ interest and Rahul seems to have understood that. A key pitch of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is corruption free clean politics. In such a scenario, Congress taking steps to infuse transparent party politics will cut competition and challenge from emerging forces such as AAP. Congress seems to be catching up soon with the election fervor.