Leaders’ sons, wives in Cong list
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Nov 5 — After several days of discussion, the Congress today released first list of over 270 candidates from Madhya Pradesh and 176 from Rajasthan for the forthcoming assembly elections in which relatives of senior leaders figure prominently.

Relatives who figure in the list of candidates from Madhya Pradesh include Mr Ajay Singh (Churat), son of senior CWC leader, Mr Arjun Singh, and Mr Arun Vora (Durg), son of former Chief Minister, Motilal Vora, while in Rajasthan it is Mrs Rama Pilot (Hindoli), wife of CWC member, Rajesh Pilot, and Mrs Yasmeen Abrar (Sawai Madhopur), wife of former Minister Abrar Ahmed, who rejoined the Congress recently after a brief stay in the BJP.

Incidentally, both Mrs Pilot and Mr Ajay Singh had lost during the last round and during the meeting of Central Election Committee, some leaders pointed out this fact.

In Madhya Pradesh, where the Congress faces an uphill task to retain power, Chief Minister Digvijay Singh has been renominated from Raghogarh. The State unit President, Mrs Urmilla Singh, who is one of the 14 women candidates from among the list of 270, will be fielded from the Ghansor reserved constituency.

Former Chief Minister S C Shukla has been renominated from Rajim while former Gujarat Governor Krishan Pal Singh will contest from Sohagpur.

Also figuring in the list are senior ministers of the Divijay Singh council, like Mr Ajay Mushran, Mr Hazari Lal Reghuvanshi, Speaker Srinivas Tiwari, and PCC spokesman Manak Aggarwal.

Though the party has claimed that it has axed nearly 18 ministers of the Digvijay Cabinet, party sources said that opposition by those dropped has lead to some rethinking on some seats.

The second list due to be released soon may clear the mist, the sources said.

Interestingly, the Congress has left one seat (Khairlanji) to the Republic Party of India, even though the party had officially announced that it will have a ‘strategic electoral understanding’ with the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Meanwhile, the Rajasthan candidates include senior leader Nawal Kishore Sharma, former Chief Ministers Hiralal Devpura and Shiv Charan Mathur and the PCC President Parasram Maderna.

Mr Sharma has been fielded from Jaipur rural, Mr Devpura from Kumbhalgarh and Mr Mathur from Mandalgarh.

The list includes 15 women so far. Rajasthan has a total of 200 assembly constituencies.