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Alva: why different standards?

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Margaret Alva on Thursday questioned the presence of a number of relatives of party leaders among the candidates being fielded for the upcoming Assembly elections in various States. A member of the central election committee of the Congress, the former Union Minister plans to write to party president Sonia Gandhi.

Ms. Alva’s stand is that an entirely different yardstick was applied at the time of distribution of ticket for the Karnakata Assembly elections when many a Congress leader’s relative — including her own son — were denied a chance to contest the polls because of their family links.

Ms. Alva said she was not alone in wondering why party policy was not being applied uniformly in all States. “I am a member of the CEC and people from Karnataka are constantly asking me why one set of guidelines was applied to Karnataka and another set of rules is being used for the election-going States.”

As to why she was going public at this juncture, Ms. Alva said she had said the Karnataka election had been mismanaged by the party. Asked if she was upset because her son had been denied ticket, she shot back: “What was wrong with C.K. Jaffer Sharief’s grandson or my son? Were they anti-national or terrorists?”

As per a rough count, as many as 23 Congress candidates chosen to contest the upcoming polls are relatives of senior party leaders. Madhya Pradesh alone has 10 such. Chhattisgarh has five, Rajasthan seven and Jammu & Kashmir one. Ms. Alva has aired her differences over candidate selection within the CEC also.

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