Sonia to decide on Rao's fate; Jakhar may fight as an independent
George Iype in New Delhi
The Congress has decided to leave the decision to nominate its controversial leaders P V Narasimha Rao and Balram Jakhar for the general election to the party's star campaigner, Sonia Gandhi.
The Congress has not included these two leaders in its lists of candidates so far, since senior leaders like Madhavrao Scindia have sternly opposed nominating 'corrupt leaders for the election'.
While Rao is the accused in a number of scandals including the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha bribery and Lakhubhai Pathak cheating cases, Jakhar has been implicated in the Jain hawala case. While Rao wants to contest the election from Berhampur in Orissa, Jakhar is seeking nomination from Bikaner in Rajasthan.
Congress sources said the issue could now be settled only by Sonia who cleared the first two lists of party candidates for different states. Sonia, who will be back in the capital on Thursday after her election tour, is expected to decide on fielding Rao and Jakhar for the election.
One party leader told Rediff On The NeT that there was a clear division among top Congress leaders over the candidatures of both Rao and Jakhar. "While party president Sitaram Kesri and senior leaders like R K Dhawan want both Rao and Jakhar to contest the election, a section of Rao-baiters led by Scindia are said to be creating problems for the party leadership," he said.
Jakhar, he said, is caught in the crossfire between Rao and Scindia.
Jakhar, along with Scindia, V C Shukla and some other Congress leaders, was implicated in the hawala scam. While the Delhi high court exonerated Scindia and others from the scam, the court is yet to clear Jakhar.
Scindia is merely paying back Rao in the same coin that was handed out to him in 1996. Rao had then denied the MP from Gwalior a renomination saying that those chargesheeted should not be given the party ticket. Scindia then left the Congress, floated the Madhya Pradesh Vikas Congress and won the election from Gwalior on its ticket.
The Congress central election committee had cleared Jakhar's name last week along with other nominations from Rajasthan, but the party leadership was forced to recall it after the Scindia-led group staunchly opposed it.
Congress sources said Rao's detractors in the party have chalked out a strategy to deny the former prime minister a ticket, but at the same time will allow Jakhar to contest from Bikaner. According to this strategy, Rao would be denied the nomination 'for failing to protect the Babri Masjid.'
Sonia, whose animosity towards Rao is well-known, may not be opposed to this idea. Scindia and other Sonia loyalists like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Jitendra Prasada have been inspired by Sonia's recent reference to the Babri Masjid demolition in her speech in Hyderabad where she said her late husband Rajiv Gandhi would have laid down his life to protect the mosque.
While Congress leaders are waiting for Sonia to settle the controversy over the tickets to Rao and Jakhar, the latter is getting ready to contest from Bikaner anyway.
Jakhar told Rediff On The NeT that he will contest as an Independent candidate from Bikaner if the Congress leadership denied him a ticket.
Arguing that the party cannot deny him a ticket since he has been chargesheeted in the hawala scam, the former Lok Sabha speaker said, "Let the courts prove that I am guilty in the case. Why should the party now penalise me for a scam I am not involved in?"
Jakhar ridiculed the party leadership's double standards, saying "it was strange that the Congress can go in for a poll alliance with Laloo Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar, but deny a ticket to me."
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