Congress in a fix over ticket for “tainted politicians”

The Congress’s Central Election Committee is in a quandary over how to deal with the issue of “tainted politicians” as it works on its second list.

Balancing the party’s image with ensuring that it has winning candidates in what will be a very tough election is proving to be a tough task.

Hanging in the balance, therefore, are the fates of the former Railway Minister, Pawan Kumar Bansal (Chandigarh), the former Maharashtra Chief Minister, Ashok Chavan (Nanded), Suresh Kalmadi (Pune) and the former Union Minister, Subodh Kant Sahay (Ranchi).

In the case of Mr. Chavan (named in the Adarsh Commission’s report) and Mr. Kalmadi (jailed in the Commonwealth Games scam), there has even been talk of nominating their relatives.

On Monday, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Manish Tewari complicated the party’s predicament by saying: “The Congress should not get into legalities and instead not give ticket to those who are facing even allegations of corruption.”

Mr. Tewari’s critics said he did not wish to be re-nominated from his constituency, Ludhiana, and is eyeing Chandigarh because apart from the difficulties that all Congressmen are facing, the fact that the Aam Aadmi Party has fielded H.S. Phoolka, a lawyer for the victims of the 1984 riots, here makes his situation much trickier.

Meanwhile, the last few days have seen several high-profile departures from the Congress. For instance, the former IAS officer, Bhagirath Prasad, joined the BJP on Sunday, a day after he was declared the party’s candidate for Bhind.

Mr. Prasad’s exit was preceded in Andhra Pradesh by that of the former Union Minister, Daggubati Purandeshwari, daughter of Telugu Desam Party founder N.T. Rama Rao. She also joined the BJP. She said she quit the Congress as she was left with no option after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

Her party colleagues — the former Minister, Silpa Mohan Reddy, MLA Labbi Venkataswamy and the former MLA, Challa Ramakrishna Reddy, and the former Ministers, T.G. Venkatesh and Erasu Pratap Reddy (all from Kurnool district) — have since joined the TDP.

Simultaneously, last week, in a jolt to the Congress in Odisha ahead of the simultaneous Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh and Legislature Party secretary Anup Sai abandoned the Congress for the Biju Janata Dal.

There are also reports suggesting that the former Bihar Congress chief, Mehboob Ali Kaiser, upset at not getting ticket, may join Ramvilas Paswan’s Lok Jan Shakti Party soon.

If there was any positive news for the Congress, it is that it has tied up in Uttar Pradesh with Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal and Keshav Maurya’s Mahan Dal (launched by the horticulturist castes, Shakyas, Mauryas and Kushwahas), leaving eight and three seats respectively to them, all in the western part of the State.