Rahul asks Cong leaders to gear up for 2014 LS poll

Asking local-level party leaders to gear up for the 2014 general elections, AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi said those who had lost three Lok Sabha and Assembly polls during their political career should opt out of the race voluntarily to give others a chance.

Gandhi's suggestion came when his attention was drawn at a party meeting to how some names of poll aspirants were chucked out in the final list and replaced by some others.

"I prefer that the candidates list be announced 7 to 8 months before any election ... I ask you all to gear up for the 2014 elections," Gandhi, who addressed a meeting of party block and district presidents and other leaders here, said.

He also asked Congress members to desist from indulging in factional feuds and be united ahead of the general elections and Jharkhand polls slated for 2014, so that the party formed the governments at both places.

Earlier, Gandhi was told by the participants that aspirants who failed to secure a ticket indulge in anti-party activities to defeat the official candidate.

"Rahulji advised us not to indulge in such activities but to go back to the panchayats to establish contact with the people who are keen to see a Congress government in Jharkhand," Ranchi Congress unit president Surendra Singh, who attended the meeting, told reporters.