Now, Congress to contest 22 seats in Bihar

In yet another major decision, which was hanging fire for the past several days, senior leader Balram Jakhar’s candidature has been cleared from Bikaner in Rajasthan.

The first matter taken up by the CEC was Bihar. But the discussion on the thorny issue ended in a few minutes. At the outset, Congress president Sitaram Kesri announced that the party would be putting up 22 candidates there. Barring the eight for which the seat adjustment had already been reached with the RJD, the remaining 14 would have a “friendly fight” with the RJD candidates. There was no opposition to Kesri’s announcement, it is learnt.

The decision is expected to smoothen the ruffled feathers in the Bihar Congress, but several Congress Working Committee (CWC) members are keeping their fingers crossed. The situation in Bihar, it is being argued, has reached a flashpoint and the state partymen are dead against “friendly fights” with Laloo’s men. Sarfaraz Ahmed reportedly wrote a protest letter to Sonia, detailing how the leaders in New Delhi had “sold off” to Laloo by meekly accepting the electoral tie-up that left them with only eight seats out of a total of 54.

Of the 15 candidates cleared by the CEC this evening, six are from Bihar.

They are Shakeel Ahmed (from Madhubani), Vijay Singh Soy (Singhbhum), Indernath Bhagat (Lohardaga) and three sitting MLAs now fielded for the Parliamentary constituencies – Rajo Singh (from Begusarai), Rajenbdra Prasad Singh (Giridh) and Keshav Mahato Kamlesh (Ranch).

Speaking to The Indian Express here on telephone, Tariq Anwar said he had held detailed discussions with the PCC leaders, including Sarfaraz, and by and large everybody was satisfied with the CEC’s decision.

ENS adds from Patna: Angry with Laloo’s decision to leave only eight Lok Sabha seats to the Congress in Bihar, Vijay Shankar Mishra, general secretary of the state Congress, today said: “There is no point in extending support to the RJD government when Laloo is not interested in honouring his commitment to go along with the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections.”

Mishra, who returned from Delhi today after meeting Sonia Gandhi, said a letter of withdrawal of support will be conveyed to the Governor soon.

Tariq, however, refuted that there was any move to dislodge the RJD Government in the state. “The decision can only be taken by the Central leadership, and not by the state unit,”he said.

Commenting on Mishra’s threat of withdrawing support to the Rabri Devi Government, Tariq said there were 29 general secretaries in the Bihar PCC and he was just one of them.

The CEC today cleared most of the candidates from Rajasthan and Maharashtra, but did not announce their names.