Rahul appeals to PM to raise subsidised LPG cylinder cap, promises clean Cong candidates

New Delhi: Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Friday made a strong pitch for the raising of the quota of subsidised LPG cylinders for households during a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Party sources replied in the affirmative when asked whether the issue had come up during the 30-minute meeting which Gandhi held with Singh Friday morning.

Soon after Gandhi had raised the issue with the Prime Minister, some party MPs met Oil Minister Veerappa Moily and demanded that the ceiling for subsidised LPG cylinders be raised from the present nine to 12 per year.

There have been demands from party leaders that the subsidised LPG quota be raised ahead of Lok Sabha elections, after some of them felt that the 'unpopular' measure of reducing the limit had cost the party dearly in the recent Assembly elections.

With pressure building on him to increase the quota of subsidised LPG cylinders, Moily on Friday said the government would 'seriously consider' allowing 12 cylinders for households.

Moily, who had last week remarked that there was no proposal to increase the quota, on Friday said he would consult Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and move the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) on the issue.

The comments came after Congress MPs Sanjay Nirupam, PC Chacko and Mahabal Mishra met Moily with a petition requesting an increase in the quota of subsidised LPG cylinders.

Chidambaram had last week stated that there were demands from 'several chief ministers' to raise the quota and that the government 'will look into' them.

With a view to cutting its subsidy bill, the government had initially capped the supply of subsidised domestic LPG cylinders to six per household per year in September, 2012. The annual quota was later raised to nine cylinders in January, 2013.

Next: Early declaration of Cong nominees under 'new process': Rahul

Early declaration of Cong nominees under 'new process': Rahul

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi on Friday pitched for giving Lok Sabha tickets to ordinary workers and those having a clean image as he unveiled a 'new process' that will see early declaration of Congress nominees.

In an unprecedented step, the Congress Vice-President convened a meeting of newly-appointed chairmen of screening committees for all states and UTs to set in motion the process that would reflect the 'voice of the people'.

Party sources said Rahul told the leaders that while deciding candidates the views of local people should be given prime importance and ordinary party workers should be given their due in the selection.

"We are taking the decision about giving tickets in a new way, under a new process... Discussions on it about various states have been taking place within our party for a long time. We are doing this with a formal structure," he told reporters.

He said all tickets will be finalised at the national level 'very soon for first time as far as deadline is concerned'.

Rahul is believed to have underlined the importance of giving weightage to common people in decision making in the political processes including deciding candidates. He is learnt to have impressed upon the broad parameters of candidate selection like no criminal record against them and an experience of right kind of politics along with winnability.

Rahul said the screening committees should start their work by the last week of this month so that the meetings of the Central Election Committee could be possible by first week of next month for finalisation of tickets.

The exercise initiated by Rahul comes in the backdrop of the BJP as well as the AAP speeding up the process of selection of candidates for the polls and setting this month as a deadline.

So far, Congress has generally been late in deciding the nominees and sometimes they are declared on the last day of filing nominations giving little time for the candidates to prepare for the battle ahead. Rahul has entrusted party general secretaries Madhusudam Mistry and C P Joshi the job of deciding modalities for the working of the screening committees.