The Hindu : National : Congress fields Qureshi from Madhya Pradesh

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Friday, Jun 18, 2004

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National

Congress fields Qureshi from Madhya Pradesh

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL, JUNE 17. The Congress today sprang a surprise and entered the Rajya Sabha poll race in Madhya Pradesh by fielding a former State Minister, Aziz Qureshi.

Mr. Qureshi filed his nomination in the presence of the Pradesh Congress Committee president, Subhash Yadav, the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Jamuna Devi, former Ministers, Harbans Singh, Sajjan Singh Verma, Arif Aqueel, and Govind Singh, and the State Congress general secretaries, Manak Agrawal and Deepchand Yadav.

In Madhya Pradesh, there are three Rajya Sabha seats that are falling vacant in the normal course and these would be filled through the biennial election process. Besides, there would be a

by-election for a fourth seat that has fallen vacant due to the resignation of the State BJP president, Kailash Joshi, after being elected to the Lok Sabha.

The BJP has the advantage of numbers. Since it has more than a three-fourths majority in a House of 230, four of its candidates — the former Union Minister, S. Thirunavukkarasar, the former BJP national vice president, Pyarelal Khandelwal, the former State Minister, Laxmi Narayan Sharma, and the prominent BJP leader representing the SC communities, Narayan Kesri — filed their nominations yesterday for the four seats to be filled from the State.

In case of an election, which the Congress is now determined to press, the BJP would have no difficulty though it would lack just a few first preference votes for the third seat for which biennial elections are to be held.

The BJP would be able to win all the seats for which biennial elections are being held on the basis of the second preference votes even if it fails to muster support from parties such as the Samajwadi Party and Gondwana Gantantra Party when it comes to the first preference votes.

Congress sources told The Hindu today that their decision to contest the Rajya Sabha elections though they lacked the required numbers for getting even one member elected to the Upper House from Madhya Pradesh, was a move to find out whether the Samajwadi Party and the Gondwana Gantantra Party were following the secular agenda or were siding with the BJP in Madhya Pradesh.

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