Cong party's decision to shun 'tainted' candidates welcomed

New Delhi, Jan 18 (UNI) Various people's organisations in the capital have welcomed the decision of Congress party to shun 'tainted' candidates during the forthcoming Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections.

''This is a wonderful fall-out of the meeting we had arranged and we welcome and encourage all political parties to come up with similar statements of intent for the coming and future elections,'' said New Delhi People's Alliance Coordinator Alpana Kishore.

On January 9 in a meeting organised by NDPA, federation of over 30 groups active in city, civil society groups and resident welfare association representatives had requested various political parties to field only 'good' candidates for the coming municipal elections.

The meeting was also attended by BJP and Congress leaders and both parties had welcomed the essential premise of promoting greater consultations between RWAs and parties before deciding candidates, a statement said.

''We are particularly encouraged that a party has taken the lead in making a commitment of this nature. We will now press for a written declaration of such a stand from all parties and candidates,'' Ms Madhu Kishwar of Manushi said.

Mr Atul Goyal, representing United Residents Joint Action, a network of over 500 RWAs from across Delhi, said this was one of the biggest achievement of the movement for good governance.

''We consider this a very important achievement of our collective efforts as a group that is working to empower RWAs across the city state of Delhi.'' People's Action President Sanjay Kaul said the idea of pre-candidature consultations between parties and RWAs was a critical component in enabling good candidates to emerge while blocking the options for corrupt ones.

''We intend to propose this model of pre-election consultations for candidature for all future elections in the state.'' Mr Kaul also said the quick turnaround by the Congress was an indicator of the active lobbying of well intentioned MLAs in the party and suggested that parties had to realise that civil society had the power to defeat (and help win) candidates in polls.

UNI