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Girija strong contender for NCW top post
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 5
Ms Girija Vyas, chairperson of the AICC media department, appears to have edged out other contenders to emerge as front-runner for the post of the Chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW).

Ms Vyas’s name, it is reliably learnt, has been cleared by the appropriate authorities and is now pending formal approval in the Cabinet Secretariat. An official announcement is expected shortly in this regard.

Although film star-turned-politician Shabana Azmi was a strong contender, her candidature met with strong resistance from Congress circles, who wanted the post to go to a party nominee. Ms Vyas has been a Union and state minister and was the president of the Rajasthan PCC till last year. She was subsequently given charge of the AICC’s media department in the last reshuffle.

The NCW Chairperson’s post has been lying vacant since the last incumbent, Ms Poornima Advani, completed her five-year-term nearly two weeks ago. Since then there has been a virtual scramble for this prestigious post. Besides Shabana Azmi, who was supported by the Left parties, others in the race included Ms Rita Bahuguna Joshi, president of the Mahila Congress, and AICC secretary Mabel Rebello. Ms Nandini Azad, a women’s activist, was also in the fray.