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Satraps' Stamp On Madhya Pradesh Congress
By Unregistered Visitors, Section Congress
In the Madhya Pradesh Congress, Singh is King.
The Thakur-Rajput population in the state is less than 2 per cent, but 39 have made it to the Congress list of candidates for the 230-member House, thanks to their proximity to the Digvijay Singh or Arjun Singh camps. In contrast, there are only 23 women on the list. Officially, the Congress is committed to granting 33 per cent reservation to women in all legislative bodies. But in practice, it has settled for a modest 10 per cent. Muslims make up eight per cent of Madhya Pradesh's population, but there are only five nominees from the community on the Congress list for the November 27 polls. Brahmins have had a better deal, with 30 nominees against a 16 per cent population share. State Congress chief Suresh Pachauri claimed the choice of candidates was guided solely by the "winnability" criterion. As many as 131 new candidates have been fielded, he said. Click On "Full Story" For More....
But party insiders said the presence of so many new faces had more to do with the dismal performance in 2003 when only 38 Congress nominees won. A large number lost so badly that they are yet to muster the courage and the resources for another battle.
The Congress has given 82 tickets to Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste nominees. For the remaining 148 seats, it has fielded 70 leaders from the Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Madhya Pradesh has a sizeable OBC population but traditionally they have voted for the BJP. State Congress leaders wondered why the list did not bear the stamp of Rahul and Sonia Gandhi, who have been rooting for fresh blood and adequate representation for women, minorities and other marginalised sections. Sonia had recently told the Congress Working Committee (CWC) that the "quota system" should be done away with -- a reference to the practice of regional satraps splitting tickets among their supporters. But Kamal Nath, Arjun Singh, Digvijay Singh, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Pachauri and others have once again succeeded in getting a big share for their supporters instead of scouting for the "best and brightest". In the process, the Congress suffered many an embarrassing situation. In Chattarpur's Raj Nagar seat, it fielded Shankar Pratap Singh because he was close to Arjun Singh. But 24 hours later, Shankar Pratap declined the offer and instead filed his nomination on a BSP ticket. Source: The Telegraph 10/Nov/2008
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