Cong can't find a contestant for Modi

The Congress is looking hard but cannot find an individual who will be ready to contest against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in Gujarat's Mani Nagar Assembly constituency.

The candidates the party wants to field against the chief minister are unwilling to fight him. Those who are ready to face him the party has rejected as lacking gravitas.

Local Gujarati Congressmen favour fielding any popular Gujarati actor or actress who works in Mumbai's glycerine-packed soap operas. This has been shot down on the grounds that it would "trivialise" the Congress' challenge to Modi.

Central leaders in charge of the state would like a Gandhian or a member of the Gandhi family (Mohandas, not Nehru-Gandhi) be fielded against Modi to represent the symbolic non-violent secular alternative. 
 

GUJARAT ASSEMBLY 2002
BJP	126
Congress	51
Janata Dal (U)	2
Independent	2
Total	181
MODI MARGIN OF VICTORY
Narendra Modi defeated Yatin Oza of the Congress by 75,331 votes in 2002
Modi had won Rajkot II constituency in a byelection in 2001 by 14,000 votes

The one Gandhi scion who is not averse to power politics, Tushar Gandhi, has rejected attempts to co-opt him. "For some reason he has declined," confirmed a senior Congressman.

Dancer and actress Mallika Sarabhai was also considered, given her bitter opposition and even her harassment by the Gujarat government over permission to travel overseas. Congressmen, however, are not too keen on her, as they feel she would not be a strong candidate.

The Congress then approached Dr Chikhalia, husband of Deepika Chikhalia, who played Sita in the TV series Ramayan and was a BJP MP in 1989. He, too, declined despite assurances that his campaign would be well funded.

A bizarre twist in the tale was the offer of Mahant Dharam Dass, one of the main litigants in the Ayodhya case, who approached the Congress to seek the party's nomination against Modi.

Dass, who started out as part of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, has now denounced the organisation and the BJP for their failure to build a Ram temple and has promised to take on the VHP and the BJP.

The Congress high command has, however, refused to consider his candidature viewing any link to Ayodhya as unduly risky.

The party is now in a double fix. It can neither find a suitable chief ministerial candidate nor one who will be ready to fight against Modi with only the slenderest hope of seeing victory.