Ajay Singh has suddenly come out with a suggestion that implies Suresh Pachauri should contest the elections – which does not seem in line with the high command's wishes
Never known for being outspoken on party matters, Madhya Pradesh Congress Campaign Committee chairman Ajay Singh (Rahul Bhaiya) has created ripples in political circles by suggesting that senior Congress leaders should contest against top BJP leaders to keep them confined to their own constituencies. His apparent target was PCC president Suresh Pachauri, his bete noire in the Congress party.
Singh said that Pachauri should also contest. If he does not, it will send a wrong message to the electorate. He insinuated that Pachauri should take on chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan. He had himself, Singh said, contested against former BJP chief minister Sunderlal Patwa in Bhojpur constituency in 1993; he had to virtually fight with then Prime Minister and party president PV Narasimha Rao to permit him to contest against Patwa.
While he lost in Bhojpur, the Campaign Committee chairman said, the Congress had won in five constituencies adjoining Bhojpur. He wants the senior Congress leaders to challenge BJP stalwarts like Chauhan, Assembly Speaker Ishwardas Rohani, PWD minister Kailash Vijayvargiya and agriculture minister Gopal Bhargava.
If his statement was meant to embarrass the Pachauri camp, he could not have thought of a better way. Pachauri has been shying away from entering the electoral arena – he has never won a direct election (to the Assembly or Lok Sabha) in his life. To add to Pachauri’s discomfort, Kailash Vijayvargiya has challenged him to contest from his constituency, Indore-2.
Considering himself solid chief ministerial material and resenting all this time that an inexperienced and incompetent person like Chauhan has been made the chief minister, Vijayvargiya announced that if Pachauri decided to contest from Indore-2, he would not even go for campaigning there – he would only go twice to his constituency, once to file his nomination papers and then to cast his vote.
While Pachauri himself opted to keep mum, PCC spokesman KK Mishra said that the Congress high command had sent Pachauri to organise the elections and not to contest himself. Then he quoted Pachauri as having observed several times that he (Pachauri) was in politics with the blessings of the Nehru-Gandhi family and that if Soniaji asked him to contest, he would obey.
Meanwhile, the selection of candidates is causing a severe headache to both the major parties, the BJP and the Congress. The latter is said to have cleared 50-odd names and is struggling desperately for the remaining constituencies. It has 40 members in the present Assembly and had a comparatively easy task to decide in favour of all but a few whose constituencies have been affected in the delimitation.
The BJP, addicted to power for the past five years, is having a real problem. The feedback it has received from the party activists in the field, as well as the government agencies, is said to be discouraging. Party’s national general secretary Ramlal is shuttling between Delhi and Bhopal to find out some miraculous formula (for the selection of the candidate) that would satisfy the aspirations of the constituency and also save the party from rebellion Uma Bharati’s BJS and Mayawati’s BSP are watching the developments in the two parties with hawk eyes. The BJS is said to be prepared to put forward the present BJP MLAs who are denied the ticket by the party provided they are formidable enough to poll a substantial number of votes to win, or at least to defeat the BJP. Similarly, the BSP is looking for disgruntled Congress leaders who can defeat the Congress candidates – the BSP is said to be prepared to own them up as its own candidates or lend them full support if they are inclined to contest as independents.