New Delhi: In a first of its kind, Congress is planning to announce tickets for the assembly elections in Gujarat by December, almost a year ahead of the polls in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Gurudas Kamat, who resumed his duties as the Congress General Secretary after quitting the party and active politics earlier this month, told reporters that the plan to announce early tickets has the backing of party Vice President Rahul Gandhi.

Assembly polls are scheduled by the end of the next year in Gujarat where BJP has been in power for the past over two decades. BJP had won all the 26 seats in the state in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Senior Congress leader A K Antony, who had gone into the poll debacle of the party in various states from time to time as head of AICC committees, had often underlined the need for the Congress to announce its candidates well in advance. The present practice is that the candidates are announced at the eleventh hour.

Last December, Congress had made an impressive comeback in rural Gujarat in the local bodies polls and since is buoyed over its prospects in the Assembly polls. Kamat had then insisted that the BJP witnessed “complete rout” in areas represented by the Prime Minister, BJP veteran L K Advani as also Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, BJP chief Amit Shah and state Home Minister and state Finance Minister.

The gains were significant in view of the fact that Congress was virtually obliterated from all tiers of power structure in the state after losing almost every election to BJP in the last 12 years under the leadership of then chief minister Modi.

Kamat said like Gujarat, the party planned to announce much in advance the tickets in the Rajasthan Assembly elections scheduled in 2018.

He said that plans are afoot to hold meetings of the state party executives along with senior leaders in both Gujarat and Rajasthan early next month to make the party battle ready. PTI