New Delhi, March 20
The waiting game for Punjab’s Lok Sabha aspirants continues. Except for clearing the nomination of Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder for the Gurdaspur seat, no other name from the state figures in the second list of 75 candidates from 13 states released by the Congress tonight. It includes eight sitting MPs.
Those who have been cleared include film star and socialite Nafisa Ali from Calcutta South and Sachin Pilot, son of the late Rajesh Pilot, who is to contest from Dausa in Rajasthan, his father’s constituency. The seat was held by his mother Rama Pilot in the last Lok Sabha, but she has opted out in favour of her son.
In addition, the party cleared the names of three sitting MPs from Rajasthan, including former PCC chief Girija Vyas from Udaipur.
Former Gujarat Chief Minister Madhavsinh Solanki, who was being persuaded to contest this time, declined and instead his son, Bharat Solanki, is being fielded from Anand.
While the Mandi seat in Himahcal Pradesh is yet to be cleared, the party today named Col Dhani Ram Shandil for Shimla, Chander Kumar for Kangra and Ram Lal Thakur for the Hamirpur seat.
Mr Giridhar Gamang, who lodged a protest when the Koraput seat in Orissa was initially allotted to his wife, has had his way as he was today named the party’s official candidate from this constituency. The last-minute change was effected as Mr Gamang had even threatened to cross over to the BJP.
The Congress leadership has also placated former Orissa PCC chief Sarat Patnaik by naming him for the Bolangir seat. Mr Patnaik had been sulking ever since he was replaced by veteran party leader J.B. Patnaik. Nobody
has been named for the Behrampore constituency yet. There has been considerable speculation that former Prime Minister P.V.Narasimha Rao is being considered for his old seat.
The 10 names cleared from Karnataka include former chief minister M.Veerappa Moily from Mangalore and former Janata Dal (U) MP B.L.Shankar for the Chikmangalur seat while Aiynoor Manjunath, who crossed over from the BJP recently, is to take on arch rival B.S. Bangarappa, now with the BJP, in Shimoga.
It is learnt that in the case of Punjab, the Congress leadership is still struggling to find suitable candidates for key seats like Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Faridkot, Hospiarpur and Sangrur. After former Finance Minister Manmohan Singh declined to contest the Ludhiana seat, the party has zeroed in on former film star Rajesh Khanna and Youth Congress leader Manish Tiwari but there is no final word on it yet.
It is learnt that the choices for Jalandhar are also wide open and though Jagmeet Singh Brar is stated to have been moved from Faridkot to Ferozepore, there was no official word on this yet. Since AICC general secretary Ambika Soni is not being spared for the Lok Sabha poll, the party is looking around for a strong candidate for the Hoshiarpur seat.
