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Bajwa, Tanwar on Cong list of 58; tainted Kalmadi denied ticket Asking all recently appointed young state party presidents to defend their constituencies, the Congress has nominated party’s Haryana chief Ashok Tanwar from his current parliamentary segment Sirsa (reserved); Punjab chief Partap Singh Bajwa from Gurdaspur; and Rajasthan president Sachin Pilot from his present seat of Ajmer. With this, the Congress has ensured its young brigade holding crucial party positions is in the field when the party needs them the most. Arun Yadav and Nirmal Khatri, the presidents of Madhya Pradesh and UP Congress units, respectively, were earlier named as candidates from their current seats of Khandwa and Faizabad. The party also approved candidates for all three pending Haryana seats. From Ambala (reserved), Raj Kumar Valmiki will contest on the Congress ticket. From Gurgaon, Bahadurgarh MLA Rao Dharampal emerged
a surprise candidate among the weighty ones such as Haryana ministers Capt Ajay Yadav (and his son Chiranjeevi) and Aftab Ahmed apart from Rao Daan Singh. Dharampal is the third Yadav candidate in Gurgaon, where the BJP has already named Rao Inderjit and AAP has fielded Yogendra
Yadav. “This nomination could lead to complete division of Yadav votes, while all three lakh Meo votes in the segment may go to the lone Muslim candidate of the INLD in the fray,” said a Congress leader wondering whether the move will help the party at all. From Punjab, Bajwa’s was the only name to be announced today taking the number of seats for which names have been declared to five - eight are pending. Another important name announced today was that of former BJP rebel Rajinder Rana from Hamirpur segment. The Tribune had earlier reported that the candidatures of Ashok Tanwar and Rana from Sirsa and Hamirpur respectively had been cleared and would be declared soon. Today’s list of 58 Congress candidates also reflects the continuing thought in the party: “Do not experiment too much.” Most of the candidates on today’s list are sitting MPs with no risks taken. In Delhi, except two seats of South Delhi (currently held by Ramesh Kumar) and West Delhi (currently held by Mahabal Mishra), which are pending, all other five sitting MPs have been repeated. Among these are - ministers Kapil Sibal and Krishna Tirath from Chandni Chowk and North West Delhi respectively; Sandeep Dikshit from East Delhi, Ajay Maken from New Delhi and Jai Parkash Agarwal from North East Delhi. Agarwal and Maken were elected in the Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s
[rimaries experiment launched this year. In place of Kalmadi, the party has named Vishwajeet Kadam, the son of Maharashtra Minister Patang Rao Kadam, as its nominee from Pune constituency. Other takeaways from today’s Congress list include the shifting of parliamentary constituencies by top party leaders such as AICC general secretary CP Joshi who has shifted from Bhilwara to Jaipur Rural and Mohd Azharuddin, who has moved from Moradabad in UP to Tonk in
Rajasthan. Culture Minister Chandresh Kumari has been re-nominated from her seat of Jodhpur. The Congress hasn’t accommodated former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot’s son in Jalore (Rajasthan) from where he had applied for a seat. Congress plans a big surprise against Modi Congress general secretary in charge of UP Madhusudan Mistry on Tuesday said the party was set to spring a "big bang surprise" in the form of a candidate opposite BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in Varanasi. He didn't rule out the possibility of fielding a non-politician from the seat.
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New Delhi, March 18