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Cong nominees for 36 of 403 UP seats put on hold
Lack of unanimity, many claimants and confusion about background of some prospective candidates has forced the Congress to withhold decision about its nominees for 36 of the 403 constituencies going to poll in Uttar Pradesh next month.
The Central Election Committee of the party, chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, met on Saturday to discuss the candidates for the remaining 87 seats but due to pending disputes 36 seats could not be decided, sources said.
After detailed deliberations in which senior leaders like AK Antony, M Veerappa Moily, AICC general secretary in-charge for Uttar Pradesh Digvijay Singh participated it was found that for some of these seats there were more than two deserving claimants while on few other Congress wanted to select its candidates only after seeing whom the other political parties have fielded to counter them better. For some prospective candidates it was felt that a better check of their background was necessary before a final decision could be taken, they pointed out.
Now Sonia herself will take a final call on these seats after consulting Digvijay and party’s screening committee chairman Mohan Prakash on the basis of inputs collected from various sources.
Of the 403 seats in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has already released four lists having names of candidates for 271 seats while the party has left 45 seats for alliance partner Rashtriya Lok Dal. Another list of 51 candidates is likely to be released soon. The remaining 36 seats will be declared as and when the names of candidates for them will be cleared.
RLD chief and Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh had demanded that change in a couple of seats already declared by the Congress, but the major alliance partner has refused to concede his demand. It has clarified that there will be no change in the names of candidates already declared by the party.
Lack of unanimity, many claimants and confusion about background of some prospective candidates has forced the Congress to withhold decision about its nominees for 36 of the 403 constituencies going to poll in Uttar Pradesh next month.
The Central Election Committee of the party, chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, met on Saturday to discuss the candidates for the remaining 87 seats but due to pending disputes 36 seats could not be decided, sources said.
After detailed deliberations in which senior leaders like AK Antony, M Veerappa Moily, AICC general secretary in-charge for Uttar Pradesh Digvijay Singh participated it was found that for some of these seats there were more than two deserving claimants while on few other Congress wanted to select its candidates only after seeing whom the other political parties have fielded to counter them better. For some prospective candidates it was felt that a better check of their background was necessary before a final decision could be taken, they pointed out.
Now Sonia herself will take a final call on these seats after consulting Digvijay and party’s screening committee chairman Mohan Prakash on the basis of inputs collected from various sources.
Of the 403 seats in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has already released four lists having names of candidates for 271 seats while the party has left 45 seats for alliance partner Rashtriya Lok Dal. Another list of 51 candidates is likely to be released soon. The remaining 36 seats will be declared as and when the names of candidates for them will be cleared.
RLD chief and Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh had demanded that change in a couple of seats already declared by the Congress, but the major alliance partner has refused to concede his demand. It has clarified that there will be no change in the names of candidates already declared by the party.
