The Hindu : New Delhi News : Known faces in Gujarat Congress list

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Tuesday, Mar 10, 2009
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Known faces in Gujarat Congress list

Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday announced candidates for 12 of the 26 Lok Sabha constituencies in Gujarat and the lone seat in Dadra & Nagar Haveli. In Gujarat, the party has repeated candidates for most of the seats.

Ten out of the 12 candidates contested the 2004 elections and eight of them won. The MPs who have been given ticket include Union Ministers Shankarsinh Vaghela (Panchmahal), Dinsha Patel (Kheda) and Naranbhai J. Rathwa (Chhota Udaipur).

The other members of the 14th Lok Sabha in the fray are Jivbhai Ambalal Patel (Mehsana), Madhusudhan Mistry (Sabarkantha), Bharatbhai M. Solanki (Anand), Tushar A. Chaudhary (Bardoli) and Kishanbhai V. Patel (Valsad). Mr. Solanki is the son of the former External Affairs Minister, Madhavsinh Solanki.

Two new faces

In Dahod and Vadodara, the Congress has decided to field once again Prabha Taviyad and Satyajit Gaekwad. Ms. Taviyad lost the last election by 300 votes and Mr. Gaekwad by 6,000.

The only new faces are Danicha Vajlibhai (Kutch) and Vittalbhai Radadia (Porbandar), both seats presently held by the Bharatiya Janata Party. Mr. Radadia is a member of the Assembly.

Though candidates for 17 constituencies in Gujarat were cleared by the central election committee (CEC) at its meeting on Sunday, a final decision on five seats has been kept pending for wider consultations.

Meanwhile, the Nationalist Congress Party, which contested one seat (Rajkot) in 2004 in alliance with the Congress, is asking for two seats now. In Dadra & Nagar Haveli, the Congress will field the sitting member Mohanbhai S. Delkar.In Madhya Pradesh, the CEC for the State has had one sitting but is yet to come to consensus. It is, however, certain that the three Union Ministers from the State — Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kantilal Bhuria — will be repeated. Also, there is talk of Union Minister Arjun Singh’s son and daughter being considered.

Candidates for Chhattisgarh

Late in the evening, the Congress finalised candidates for six constituencies in Chhattisgarh: Bhanu Pratap Singh (Surguja), Shiv Kumar Dehariya (Jangir-Champa), Charan Das Mahant (Korba), Devvrat Singh (Rajnandgaon), Shankar Singh Sodi (Bastar) and Phulo Devi Netam (Kanker).

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