Under the primaries, a representative section of party workers, leaders and others, decided the Congress candidate from their constituency by participating in a simple voting process.
The party had said that the new process was in line with the Congress Vice President's focus on opening the system by “ending the high command culture” and empowering the grassroots workers.
It had said that the process would continue as it was part of the long-terms plans to bring sweeping changes in ticket distribution and other processes in the party.
The project had got into a controversy soon after it had begun with Union Ministers Kapil Sibal and Krishna Tirath initially opposing the move to bring their constituencies under this exercise.
Later, it was noticed that most of the constituencies under this experiment chose sitting Members of Parliament, senior leaders, their kith and kin or close associates, virtually defeating the purpose of the exercise.
The experiment witnessed several controversies including the selection of constituencies, charges of bogus voting and use of money power in some states.
