With every seat important in what is an extremely crucial election for it, the Congress has in its choice for the coming Lok Sabha elections depicted trust in old warhorses and known names, with the party high command understood to have even leaned on some reluctant seniors to enter the fray.
Veterans like Meira Kumar, who has taken the field yet again from her traditional seat of Sasaram in Bihar, Sushil Kumar Shinde from Solapur, Harish Rawat from Nainital-Udhamsinghnagar, Digvijaya Singh from Bhopal and Salman Khurshid from Farrukhabad and Pawan Kumar Bansal from Chandigarh are among the Congress's candidates.
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While party president Rahul Gandhi had given a directive that Rajya Sabha members should not be considered for nomination as candidates in the Lok Sabha elections, the exigency of winning the crucial polls has resulted in the party opting for some leaders who are members of the upper house. Digvijaya is one of them. His party colleague in the Rajya Sabha, Vivek Tankha, has been fielded from Jabalpur. B.K. Hariprasad, who is also a member of the upper house and was the opposition candidate for the election to the post of Rajya Sabha deputy chairman, has been nominated from Bangalore South.
There was also pressure on senior leader and AICC treasurer Ahmed Patel to return to the electoral arena by contesting from Bharuch. Patel had won from Bharuch in 1977, 1980 and 1984, and then lost in 1989 and 1991, the defeats coinciding with the rise of Hindutva politics in Gujarat. However, the party finally fielded Sherkhan Abdul Shakur Pathan from the constituency. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has been a Rajya Sabha member since 1991, and who has had only one electoral outing—an unsuccessful one in 1998— rejected an offer from the party to contest from Amritsar. Meanwhile, it is learnt that if the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party form an alliance in Delhi, lawyer-turned-politician Kapil Sibal, a member of the upper house, will be the likely candidate from Chandni Chowk.
There is pressure on Jyotiraditya Scindia, AICC general secretary in charge of Western Uttar Pradesh, to contest from Gwalior—the seat of the Scindia royal family—which is currently held by the BJP. Scindia is presently an MP from Guna.
The search for recognised names has led the party to nominate several leaders who are established faces in state politics, including former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Tuki from Arunachal West, Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Paresh Dhanani, late Congress leader Arjun Singh's son Ajay Singh Rahul who currently represents Churhat Vidhan Sabha constituency, and Karnataka Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Krishna Byre Gowda.
The Congress has declared a total of 379 candidates so far for the Lok Sabha elections.
