 "Turmoil reigns in political parties")
Turmoil ruled in all political parties as candidate selection for the Lok Sabha polls got underway.
Some Congress seniors, worried about losing, are ruling themselves out of the contest. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) put off candidate selection for contentious seats, fearing factional fights. In Bihar, the Janata Dal (United) stood on the verge of a vertical split as potential candidates protested denial of tickets. In Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the situation was no better.
In the Congress, top leaders said Finance Minister P Chidambaram was unlikely to recontest his Sivaganga (Tamil Nadu) seat, two days after Shipping Minister G K Vasan announced he would be staying away from the election. Former cabinet minister Jayanthi Natarajan, former TN party chief K V Thangabalu and leader E V K S Elangovan have already announced they will not contest in the Lok Sabha election.
The Congress is also hard put to find candidates for half a dozen UP seats, including Noida neighbouring Delhi.
The BJP is trying to tip-toe around fragile egos by leaving till the last a decision on where party veterans L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi will be fielded from. The party is addressing uncontroversial seats though eyebrows have been raised after Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh’s son Abhishek was named the Lok Sabha candidate for the Rajnandgaon seat in place of sitting BJP MP Madhusudan Yadav.
In Uttarakhand, Chief Minister Harish Rawat, state Congress chief Yashpal Arya and former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna and former union minister Satpal Maharaj are all trying to push their sons and daughters for five Lok Sabha seats from the state.
Some Congress seniors, worried about losing, are ruling themselves out of the contest. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) put off candidate selection for contentious seats, fearing factional fights. In Bihar, the Janata Dal (United) stood on the verge of a vertical split as potential candidates protested denial of tickets. In Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the situation was no better.
In the Congress, top leaders said Finance Minister P Chidambaram was unlikely to recontest his Sivaganga (Tamil Nadu) seat, two days after Shipping Minister G K Vasan announced he would be staying away from the election. Former cabinet minister Jayanthi Natarajan, former TN party chief K V Thangabalu and leader E V K S Elangovan have already announced they will not contest in the Lok Sabha election.
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In the case of Sivaganga, Union minister of state for commerce Sudarsana Natchiappan is reportedly seeking the seat if Chidambaram is not contesting. As a Congress candidate, Natchiappan had defeated Chidambaram in the 1999 polls and made way for the latter in 2004 at the intervention of the high command. Party sources said a decision was taken a few weeks earlier that if the Congress did not find alliance partners in Tamil Nadu, the finance minister would retire gracefully and someone else, possibly his son, Karti, would contest. Now, with the high command dithering on whom to give the seat to, there is a question mark over the seat.
The Congress is also hard put to find candidates for half a dozen UP seats, including Noida neighbouring Delhi.
The BJP is trying to tip-toe around fragile egos by leaving till the last a decision on where party veterans L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi will be fielded from. The party is addressing uncontroversial seats though eyebrows have been raised after Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh’s son Abhishek was named the Lok Sabha candidate for the Rajnandgaon seat in place of sitting BJP MP Madhusudan Yadav.
In Uttarakhand, Chief Minister Harish Rawat, state Congress chief Yashpal Arya and former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna and former union minister Satpal Maharaj are all trying to push their sons and daughters for five Lok Sabha seats from the state.