Amitabh Shukla | Chandigarh
Brushing aside serious objections
from a section within the party, the Central Election Committee (CEC) of the
Congress decided to give party nomination to the sitting MP Pawan Kumar Bansal
from Chandigarh. His name figured in the second list of 71 candidates released
by the party on Thursday.
The decision to re-nominate
Bansal was taken in the meeting of the CEC in New Delhi
earlier on Thursday even as his name was sullied in the “cash for top job scam”
in the Railways in which his nephew, operating from his New
Delhi house, was arrested by the CBI. Bansal had to
unceremoniously resign from the Railway Ministry due to the scam in May last
year. The critics of Bansal in the party argue that it was only due to the UPA
Government which shielded him from the heat of CBI that he escaped being named
in the chargesheet even though the investigating agency was gunning for him.
Soon after the Railgate, several
other controversies came to light particularly how Bansal and his family’s
wealth grew manifold in the years he was in politics. This was the fodder for
local media for several months after Bansal’s exit from the Manmohan Singh
Cabinet and also a tool with the BJP to beat the Congress.
AICC General Secretary in-charge of Chandigarh ,
Shakeel Ahmad on Thursday said, “His name (Bansal’s) does not figure either in
the FIR or charge sheet. This is all media speculation which has nothing to do
with truth,” he added.
Bansal has contested six times
from Chandigarh and has won on four
occasions. He had a complete control on the Chandigarh
unit of the party till his name cropped up in the scam. Since then, he lost his
clout considerably and when applications were invited for nominations from Chandigarh
parliamentary seat, much to his surprise Bansal found that he was not the
unanimous candidate.
Despite winning four times from Chandigarh ,
Bansal did not figure in the first list of 194 candidates released by the
Congress on Saturday. Sources said Congress was playing the waiting game before
any formal announcement.
What triggered the omission of
Bansal’s name in the first list was perhaps the interest of Union Minister
Manish Tewari from his home town of Chandigarh .
As Ludhiana , the seat which Tewari
represents, is supposed to be a difficult one with four-cornered contest
emerging, Tewari apparently wanted the safer seat of Chandigarh
where it is a two-way contest between Congress and BJP despite Aam Aadmi Party
fielding film-star and model Gul Panag. This did not find favour with the CEC.
Tewari, who has studied in a
local school and college and whose mother is a nominated councilor of the
Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, has his house in the city. Without referring
to Bansal, he recently said that the party should not get into legalities and
instead “not give tickets to those who are facing even allegations of
corruption”.
This was a view which was
countered by Ahmed on Thursday, indicating that the party did not hold the
former Railway Minister responsible for the cash for post scam of the railways.
Congress sources said that had
Bansal been denied ticket, it would have virtually meant admission of his role
in the bribery scam and it could have seriously affected the chances of the
party in Chandigarh and given the
opposition a stick to beat the party with. “Not announcing the name of Bansal
in the first list was simply a political strategy,” a Congress leader said.
What went in Bansal’s favour was
the fact that even after his resignation from Railway Ministry in May last
year, he was politically rehabilitated in the organisation and appointed
chairman of the party's candidate screening panel for Gujarat and Rajasthan.
BJP and AAP have already decided that they will target Bansal on corruption and
Railgate in their campaign. (March 14, 2014)
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