Cong clears J&K list
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Aug 23 — The Congress today decided to field former state minister Peerzada Mohammed Syed from the Anantnag parliamentary constituency in Jammu and Kashmir against former Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.

The Congress Central Election Committee (CEC) also cleared the candidature of Thakur Balbir Singh from Udhampur and Mr Madan Lal Sharma from Jammu, thus clearing nominations for five of the six Lok Sabha constituencies in the state.

The party has not yet announced any candidate for the Baramula Lok Sabha constituency where it is expected to extend support to former union minister Saiffudin Soz who is contesting as an Independent.

The Mufti, who left the Congress recently, will seek re-election from Anantnag as a candidate of the People’s Democratic Party.

For the two by-elections to the state assembly, Mr Mohammed Abdullah Nadaf will be the candidate from Bij Behera and Mr Mohammed Amin Cotellery from Langet.

The Bij Behera byelection was caused by the resignation of Mehbooba Mufti, daughter of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed from the Congress and the assembly.

The CEC also cleared the candidature of former Karnataka Chief Minister M Veerappa Moily from Mangalore. Mr Vinay Kumar Sorke from Udipi and Veeranna Mathikatti from Dharwar North.

The Congress, which cleared 10 nominations earlier, had also granted the ticket to Mr Pradeep Kanogalli, son of former union minister B Shankaranand, from the Chikkodi (Reserve) constituency.

Meanwhile, there are reports that in view of protests against over the list of 31 candidates cleared so far in Uttar Pradesh, the AICC has asked Mr Arjun Singh to look into a few cases.

Prominent among the constituencies are Bareilly, Hathras (Reserve) and Hardwar. In Bareilly, former U P minister Parveen Singh Aron and his supporters are staging a dharna in front of the AICC headquarters in protest against the nomination of Mr Islam Sabir, who, they claim, has joined the Congress only after being denied a ticket by the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

A supporter of Mr Aron attempted self immolation inside the AICC headquarters and is currently in a hospital here.

In Hathras, the party has nominated Mr Ram Gopal but some workers have raised the banner of revolt. Some of them even barged into the media-room while the briefing was on, alleging that some UPCC leaders had "sold" the ticket.

In another instance, the party has nominated Mr Sujan Singh Bundela from Jhansi. According to Dr V K Khaira, an aspirant who contested on a Congress ticket in the 1998 general election, Mr Bundela did not enjoy the confidence of the state leadership earlier, but still got the nod.