MP: Cong drops 60 MLAs

BHOPAL, Nov 6 (PTI) — While the Opposition BJP has dropped only 16 out of its 111 sitting members, the ruling Congress has denied nomination to 60 sitting MLAs and six ministers for the November 25 Assembly poll.

There are reports that the Congress has a strategic understanding with the BSP which has fielded its candidates for more than half of the 320 Assembly seats.

The Congress party has decided not to re-nominate eight of the nine ministers who were dropped from the state Council of Ministers following the poor Congress performance in the Lok Sabha elections this February.

A few among those who have been dropped face corruption charges in the cases pending against them with the Lokayukta.

Some of these ministers include the former Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Pyarelal Kanwar and the then Agriculture Minister, Mr BR Yadav, who had both been charged with involvement in the Madhotaal land scam of Jabalpur in which land worth crores of rupees is alleged to have been given away at a throwaway price.

The then Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr Rajendra Kumar Singh, was also facing charges before the Lokayukta in connection with the allotment of a piece of land by the Indore Development Authority (IDA).

The former Energy Minister, Mr Narmada Prasad Prajapati, was dropped from the ministry because of charges against him for causing losses in the purchase of solar lanterns.

The only dropped minister who has been re-nominated is Mr Ratnesh Solomon, brother in-law of a Congress spokesman, Mr Ajit Jogi.

Mr Solomon has been once again given the ticket for the Nohta constituency in Damoh district from where he had won the last Assembly elections held in November 1993.

Other dropped ministers who have not been re-nominated include, Mr Yadvendra Singh, Mr Satyadev Katare and Mr Jaswant Singh.

One dropped minister, Mr Mukesh Nayak, has already left the Congress and joined the ‘‘Ajeya Bharat Party’’.

The six present ministers, who have been dropped, are the minister for Local Self Government, Mr Tanwant Singh Keer, Minister for Medical Education, Dr Ashok Sable, Mr Bapu Singh Damor, Mr Jageshwar Sahu, Mr Dheru Prasad Dhritlahre and Mr Prabhu Singh Thakur.

Earlier, there were reports that the Congress had dropped a total of 18 ministers but in the end 12 of them managed to get re-nominated again.

These ministers include the Home and Transport Minister, Mr Harvansh Singh, the General Administration Department Minister, Mr Rajendra Prasad Shukla, and the Public Relations Minister, Mr Satya Narayan Sharma.

By dropping 60 sitting members and six ministers, the Congress has gone for new faces in a big way by changing more than one-thirds of its present strength of 171 in the 320-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly.

This is in sharp contrast to the Opposition BJP which has dropped only 16 out of its 111 sitting members in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly.

Most of the sitting Congress MLAs, who have not been given tickets, have been refused re-nomination on the ground that the party lost in their constituencies in the last two Lok Sabha elections by more than 10,000 votes each.

The different manner in which the Congress and the BJP have distributed tickets has lent a new colour to the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh.

In the first list of 160 nominees released late last night, the State BSP President, Mr Dauram Ratnakar, has been re-nominated to contest for the Pamgarh seat for the third time while all the 11 sitting legislators were fielded again. However, the legislator from Dabra, Mr Jawahar Singh Rawat, has been shifted to the Karera constituency.

The state BSP Treasurer, Mr Rajendra Kumar Dawna, told UNI here that the second list of about 10 candidates would be released later. He said his party had decided not to field its nominees from the remaining constituencies where the partymen would work to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party candidates.

Besides the state BSP President and legislative party leader Dauram Ratankar, sitting legislators who had been re-nominated are Mr Soneram Kushwaha (Jaora), Mr Adal Singh Kansana (Sumawali), Mr Chaturilal Barhadia (Gohad), Dr Naresh Kumar Gurjar (Mehgaon), Mr Ganesh Vari (Chitrakoot), Mr Ram Khilawan Patel (Amarpatan), Ms Vidyawati Patel (Gurh), Mr Jaikaran Saket (Devtalab) and Dr IMP Verma (Mauganj).

Mr Dawna said in the first list, his party has given due weightage to nominees belonging to the other backward classes (OBC) by giving them 80 tickets, 45 Scheduled Caste and 26 Scheduled Tribe candidates have been fielded, he said adding that besides five minorities two candidates belonging to the general category had also been given tickets.

The BSP has not fielded candidates against the state Congress President, Ms Urmila Singh (Ghansor), the Chief Minister, Mr Digvijay Singh (Raghogarh), the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Subhash Yadav (Kasrawad) and some other ministers. However, it fielded Mr Pali Bai Nishad from the Rajim constituency from where Congress veteran and former Chief Minister Shayma Charan Shukla is contesting.

Besides putting up candidates against 12 Congress ministers, the BSP has also fielded Mr Shivraj Patel from the Churhat constituency from where the Congress Working Committee (CWC) member, Mr Arjun Singh’s son Mr Ajay Singh is contesting on a Congress ticket. Similarly, Mr Prabhat Verma has been pitted against a Congress veteran and Assembly Speaker Mr Sriniwas Tiwari, in the Mangava constituency in Rewa district.

Although the Congress has fielded its candidates from 319 constituencies and left the Khailanji seat for the Republican Party of India(K), its state leaders have been maintaining that the party had reached a strategic understanding with the BSP to defeat the BJP.

However, the BSP put up its candidates at all those places, including Gwalior, Chambal and Rewa divisions and some other areas bordering Uttar Pradesh, where it had made inroads during the past one decade. With this, all these constituencies could either witness a triangular or a multi-cornered contest.

Mr Dawna said his party’s decision to field its nominees for limited seats was primarily aimed at concentrating more in those areas where the party has influence so as to win maximum possible seats. ‘‘In other areas, our party workers would ensure defeat of BJP candidates by extending support to any candidate who could win the polls’’, he added.

BJP-INLD alliance for poll
Tribune News Service

HISAR, Nov 6 — The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) have arrived at an understanding to contest the Assembly elections in Delhi and Rajasthan together.

Party sources confirmed that the pact was reached after detailed discussions between the BJP and the INLD. The final agreement came late last night at a meeting between the leaders of the BJP, who included the Prime Minister Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and the BJP general secretary Mr Govindacharya and the INLD chief Mr Om Prakash Chautala.

Under the agreement the INLD will contest three seats from outer Delhi, while in Rajasthan the INLD will contest from eight constituencies. There would be "friendly contest" for three seats in Rajasthan.

The three seats left for the INLD in Delhi include Bawana (reserved), Nazafgarh and Mahipalpur. In Rajasthan the party will contest from Sangria, Nehore, Taranagar, Nasirabad, Mandawa, Rai Singh Nagar and two others.

The sources said, the INLD had insisted for 15 seats at least and had identified about 60 seats where the BJP had not much chances of winning.

The party had offered to contest from sixty Jat-dominated seats, in which the BJP candidates had been behind the Congress candidates by a margin of over 10000 votes and 38 seats where the BJP candidates were found trailing by five to 10000 votes during the last Lok Sabha elections, held in February last.

The INLD will contest the elections on its own symbol.

Meanwhile the former Chief Minister of Delhi, Mr Sahib Singh Verma, today said that there was no need of the BJP aligning with the INLD in Delhi. However, he pointed out, the alliance may benefit the BJP in Rajasthan.

Mr Verma, who was here, told the Tribune in an interview that it was at the insistence of the INLD chief Mr Om Prakash Chautala that the BJP had decided to concede three seats to him in Delhi.

The former Delhi Chief Minister claimed that the BJP was set to retain power in Rajasthan and Delhi and would capture it in Madhya Pradesh also. Mr Verma said, he was confident of the BJP's victory. He sought to downplay the issue of last minute leadership change in Delhi and pointed out that he was taken into confidence before the change.

Mr Verma said, he would join the Union Cabinet only after Ms Sushma Swaraj takes over as the Chief Minister of Delhi. "It is a commitment, I have made to myself", he claimed adding that if the BJP did not come to power in Delhi he would not join the Union Cabinet.

Meanwhile the INLD has called its working committee meeting of the party on November 9 at Rohtak to finalise the party programme for the Assembly elections in Delhi and Rajasthan. The meeting will be presided over by the party chief Mr Om Prakash Chautala.