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Faced with dithering MPs and senior Cabinet ministers who are citing ‘health reasons’ for not contesting elections, the Congress high command is believed to have put its foot down.
The Central Election Committee, headed by party President Sonia Gandhi, has asked the screening committees to give first preference for ticket allocation to sitting MPs.
In a meeting of the CEC, held at Sonia’s 10 Janpath residence here, the party top brass considered a number of requests from sitting MPs either seeking a “leave” from contesting in the upcoming elections or demanding a “safer” seat. Sonia and party Vice President Rahul Gandhi are learnt to have asked the chiefs of screening committees to ensure that senior leaders —particularly sitting MPs — are in the fray.
This is after complaints from various State units such as Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh that the disinterest among senior leaders to contest is hampering the party’s chances.
The party’s young cadre particularly unhappy.
“We believe that P Chidambaram and GK Vasan do not want to contest. The party is fighting alone and trying to gain some ground in Tamil Nadu. If such eminent leaders do not contest, a wrong message will go to the party workers and to the Opposition,” said a young party leader from Tamil Nadu.
Bansal may contest Meanwhile, the Congress is all set to give ticket again to Pawan Kumar Bansal from Chandigarh. Bansal, who was cleared by the CBI in the Railways cash-for-post scam, cannot be considered as a ‘tainted’ politician, the party said.
“No charge sheet has been framed against him. BJP has been leading a diatribe against him, but the fact is that there are no charges against Bansal,” said party spokesperson Randip Surjewala.
This has dashed the hopes of Information Broadcasting Minister Manish Tiwari, who was eyeing the Chandigarh seat rather than his sitting seat, Ludhiana. The high command seems to have suggested that Tiwari should start campaigning in Ludhiana.
Sources in the panel said that Moradabad MP and former Indian skipper Mohammad Azharuddin and Firozabad MP and actor Raj Babbar are the favourites of many States. “Both of them have been offered at least 10 constituencies each,” a senior leader said.
Both the MPs have offers from Maharashtra, Delhi, West Bengal, Punjab and Haryana. They, however, do not want to contest from their sitting seats.
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