THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that seniority alone should not be taken into account in deciding the Congress candidate and that newcomers should be given chance in the upcoming assembly polls. Rahul made the remarks at a meeting of the Supervisory Committee chaired by Oommen Chandy and the UDF meeting. Both meetings ended within twenty minutes.

There is currently no suggestion that all contestants should be excluded. But the party needs to be able to bring in more newcomers. Community balance should be maintained in deciding the candidates. The leaders described the preparations for the elections so far.

Rahul suggested that leaders should stand together during elections and avoid conflicting views. All the leaders except V.M.Sudheeran attended the committee meeting. The meeting assessed that it was beneficial for the UDF to be able to raise the issue of deep sea fishing related fishermen.