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Digvijay does a delicate balancing act

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL NOV. 2. The first list of 220 candidates officially released on Saturday for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, reflects that the ruling party has decided to ignore the "anti-incumbency'' factor and take the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party head on by fielding most of the sitting MLAs.

The party has dropped 20 of the 127 sitting MLAs, including two Ministers. Obviously this appears more of a cosmetic exercise since many of those dropped have themselves opted out of the electoral race with the tickets going to their family members.

The two Ministers who have been denied a ticket are the State PWD Minister, Shravan Patel, and the Minister of State for Forest, Devendra Tekam. While Mr. Patel's son, Nishith, has got the ticket from Bahoriband in Katni district, Mr. Tekam's wife, Krishna, is being fielded from Mandla. Similarly, the ticket for the Amarpatan seat in Satna district, presently held by Shivmohan Singh, has gone to his son -- the former State Minister, Rajendra Singh.

This time however the number of women being fielded by the Congress has gone up significantly. While the party had fielded 18 women candidates in the 1998 Assembly elections, the first list of 220 candidates includes the names of 34 women candidates.

On the large number of women candidates being fielded by the Congress, the Madhya Pradesh Women's Congress President, Shobha Ozha, (who will be contesting for the Indore-V seat), said today that the entire credit for ensuring women's empowerment through the Assembly election process goes to the AICC president, Sonia Gandhi. Reservation or no reservation, by fielding so many women candidates this time, the Congress has already set a trend and the main opposition BJP would also have to follow suit when it comes to deciding their candidates, she added.

The Congress party's ticket distribution exercise, which had shifted to New Delhi at the ultimate stage, involved some tough bargaining at the level of the State unit leaders heading different factions. According to reports received here, there were signs of strain when discussions had centered around the prospective candidates for the Gwalior region. There was also a strong opinion among a section of the leaders to build the party's image by dropping some Ministers facing charges of irregularities at different levels. But the final view-point of the Congress was made clear by the AICC general secretary in-charge Madhya Pradesh, Ambika Soni, who had earlier stated that even the criteria (for selecting the candidates) would be kept aside and tickets given only to the "winning candidates''.

A closer look at the exercise reveals that most of the discussion among the State party leaders had centred around seats that the Congress party had failed to win in the last elections. Factionalism notwithstanding, the Chief Minister is getting the credit here for ensuring tickets practically for his entire Cabinet and most of the sitting Congress MLAs.

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