Agony and ecstasy for ticket seekers

Amitabh Shukla

New Delhi, March 17

There was agony and ecstasy at the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) office soon after the party tickets for the civic elections were announced. Those who got the party ticket celebrated it in style with drums and the “V” sign, those who didn’t, shouted, wailed, broke the window panes and banged at the doors.

Razia Sultana wanted the party ticket from Minto Road. She did not succeed. Sultana wept before the TV cameras while her supporters consoled her. “I have spent so much from my own pocket for the Congress. Now, a rank outsider has been imposed,” said Sultana, wiping her tears.

She banged at the ante room of DPCC president Ram Babu Sharma who had locked himself inside. A posse of policemen guarded the room of Sharma from the angry crowd. Babu Ram, another aspirant and a DPCC general secretary who was denied the party ticket was pacing up the corridors of Rajiv Bhawan, the headquarters of the DPCC. “What can I say?” said the dejected aspirant.

AICC Secretary in-charge of Delhi affairs and Rajya Sabha MP J.D. Seelam soon arrived. He shouted, knocked and then banged the door of Sharma. There was no response. “Why aren’t they allowing me to meet Sharma. I have some serious talk to do,” he said. Soon Naseeb Singh, MLA and Parliamentary Secretary to the Delhi Chief Minister arrived. Sharma would still not open the door. “This is ludicrous,” Singh said.

Meanwhile Seelam directed a candidate to go to the nomination centre and file her nomination from one of the seats where the party had withheld the name. “The symbol can be given tomorrow. Go to the centre straight away and file the nomination before the deadline,” he directed the candidate.

Seelam took a seat in the spacious terrace. “I will prepare a report for the Congress President,” he said. He took details from some of the aggrieved aspirants.

Meanwhile, suspense continued whether Sharma was in his room or not. After a two-hour vigil, there was still no sign of the DPCC president. An office attendant said that perhaps he had gone from the backdoor leaving his car in the portico of the office. Gradually, the dejected candidates walked out of the office vowing that they would remain “neutral” in the elections. (2007)