New Delhi, March 6
Wary of losing Sikh votes in the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress today prevailed upon anti-Sikh riots accused politician Jagdish Tytler to withdraw from the fray in Delhi.
Currently facing CBI investigation in a murder case involving three Sikhs in the November 1984 riots, Tytler withdrew his nomination from the primaries to be held for the North East Delhi parliamentary constituency on March 11.
Tytler had thrown his hat in the ring from this segment, one among 16 others across India where Congress workers are directly electing their Lok Sabha candidates under party vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s new experiment of American primaries. By filing his nomination along with sitting MP Jai Prakash Agarwal from North East Delhi, Tytler put the Congress in an embarrassing position.
“Tytler’s continuation in the race had to be stopped,” said a top Congress leader.
Accordingly, the moment Tytler filed his nomination papers, the Primaries Secretariat, being overseen by Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, vetoed the same and made it clear that Tytler would contest Primaries elections “subject to the AICC decision to accept his nomination”.
The Congress fielded Azad and Congress general secretary in charge of Delhi Shakeel Ahmed to persuade Tytler to either withdraw from the race or face rejection of his nomination papers. The final withdrawal of the claim by Tytler came late evening after he met Congress president Sonia Gandhi who is understood to have told him to withdraw his nomination.
Shakeel Ahmed admitted, “Tytler has withdrawn from the race. He has sent his withdrawal request to me.” Tytler was pursuing his case by maintaining that no criminal case was pending against him. Congress sources said though Tytler had not been charge-sheeted in the riots, his controversial past would have done the party immense harm.
