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Saturday, Apr 19, 2008
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Chaos in all parties over candidates

S. Rajendran

BJP facing rebellion, it is brewing in Congress and Janata Dal (S)

Janata Dal (S) likely to announce first list today
JD(S) tells SP that an alliance will not work

BANGALORE: Confusion prevails in all three major political parties — the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal (Secular) — even three days after the nominations opened for the first phase of the three phase Legislative Assembly elections. The big rush for the party ticket has caused the chaos.

While the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) are still short-listing the names, the BJP, which announced the list way ahead of the other two parties, is facing another kind of a problem. Some disgruntled BJP activists (including a few former legislators) have categorically stated that come what may they will contest the elections.

Thus, if a rebellion has already surfaced in the BJP, it is now brewing in the Congress and the Janata Dal (S).

While the Congress has finalised the first list of candidates (particularly for 89 constituencies which figure in the first phase of polls), the Janata Dal (S) is playing a cool game obviously awaiting the arrival of people from the Congress who have been denied the ticket.

First list

The Janata Dal (S) is expected to announce its first list on Saturday and the party candidates will file their nomination papers from Monday. The BJP has announced candidates for 185 constituencies, including 87 for the first phase.

The Janata Dal (United) obviously upset with the manner in which the BJP has treated it so far, has announced candidates for 24 constituencies.

Of an estimated 10,000 Congressmen including leaders and activists who made a beeline to New Delhi to exert pressure on the AICC to get the ticket for their respective leaders, a large number of them have since returned disappointed.

Some of them are stated to be in touch with the Janata Dal (S) leadership which has set up a screening committee to scrutinise such applications.

The sources in the Congress told The Hindu that yet another reason for the delay in the AICC announcing the first list has been the pressure exerted by some senior leaders on the party high command to ensure that “their people” are given ticket.

“Some leaders have charged some of the candidates and when the names of such candidates were missing from the list they have exerted pressure resulting in the delay. It is being sorted out,” the sources said.

The party sources refused to divulge more details on “the transactions”.

Meanwhile, a last-minute attempt to bring about an alliance between the Karnataka unit of the Samajawadi Party and the Janata Dal (S) has failed.

The Janata Dal (S) leadership reportedly told the Samajwadi Party leaders that such an alliance would not work since the latter was associated with the Congress at the national level while in Karnataka, the Janata Dal (S) and the Congress were rivals. Further, the Samajwadi Party’s reported demand for 40 Assembly seats was not acceptable to the Janata Dal (S). The attempt of the Samajawadi Party to forge an electoral alliance with the Congress fell through on Thursday.

The Congress high command, apart from finalising the list of candidates is simultaneously working at a strategy to put down rebellion.

The kith and kin of several party leaders have themselves been denied ticket apart from those who lost the last two Assembly elections of 1999 and 2004.

The stage is thus set for another round of political realignment in Karnataka.

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