The Hindu : Nagender to contest as Independent

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 31, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Nagender to contest as Independent

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, MARCH 30. In a swift turn of events, the former Congress legislator from the Asifnagar constituency, D. Nagender, rejected the party high command's decision to field him from the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency and announced that he would contest as Independent from the Asifnagar Assembly segment.

The reason for the revolt is stated to be the party's decision to field the Hyderabad City Congress president, Anjan Kumar Yadav, from Asifnagar. Mr. Nagender, it was said, felt that he was being made a scapegoat in the process and called for a meeting of his followers where he announced the decision, which led a minor political upheaval among the Congress circles in Hyderabad.

Mr. Nagender had been reluctant to leave the Asifnagar seat from the beginning and held out a threat to contest as Independent should the party decline him a ticket.

After a lot of convincing in Delhi, the lone Congress MLA from the State capital in the dissolved Assembly accepted the party's proposal to take on the Union Minister, Bandaru Dattatreya, in the Secunderabad parliamentary constituency.

In fact, till afternoon Mr. Nagender was busy making arrangements for taking out a rally for filing nomination.

He had conferred with other Congress candidates in the twin cities and decided to hold a meeting on Wednesday evening. However, as news broke out about Mr. Anjan Kumar Yadav being selected for Asifnagar, swift developments had taken place, and within hours he announced his decision to contest as Independent.

Speaking to The Hindu late on Tuesday night, he put the entire blame on the APCC president, D. Srinivas, for the development. He maintained that he was driven to take the "haste" decision as he was made the scapegoat. "Mr. Srinivas wants to favour the MIM in Hyderabad, and in return he expects some support from them in Nizamabad constituency," Mr. Nagender charged.

Mounting a scathing attack on the APCC president, the former MLA remarked that he was ready to contest from the Secunderabad Lok Sabha seat, but the decision to give Asifnagar ticket to "some outsider" pained him more. "Even Ghulam Nabi Azad assured me to allot Asifnagar ticket to one of my followers, but the APCC president spoiled the plan for his selfish ends," he alleged.

Sources say that as Mr. Nagender convened a meeting of his followers, the party high command made frantic efforts to contact him on the telephone and convince him.

A peeved Mr. Nagender refused to listen to any arguments and rang off everytime Delhi was on line, one of his followers said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Anjan Kumar Yadav is making arrangements to file his nomination from the Asifnagar constituency at 11 a.m. unmindful of the brouhaha created over his selection.

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