02-07-2007, 01:14 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Senior Congress leaders wary of testing troubled waters in UP </b>
Pioneer.com
Yogesh Vajpeyi | New Delhi
Senior Congress leaders in Uttar Pradesh are running for cover following Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi's suggestion that the party should field heavyweights, including former MPs and senior PCC functionaries in the State Assembly elections.
While some of them are trying to get out of the trap by pleading that it will be beneath their status, others have started looking for safe constituencies.
The Amethi MP, who is overseeing the party's come back strategy in Uttar Pradesh from the back-stage is reported to have made the suggestion at a recent meeting of State Congress leaders.
He asked all former MPs, zonal in-charges appointed by the party high command to galvanise the party in different regions of Uttar Pradesh to contest for the Assembly elections because they had a good profile and the chances of their victory were good.
Apart from State Congress Chief Salman Khurshid, other senior leaders likely to be affected by <b>Rahul Gandhi's proposal, include former MP Khan Gufran Zahidi, Congress Working Committee member Noor Bano, Rita Bahuguna, RPN Singh, Rajesh Pati Tripathi, Raj Bahadur, Nirmal Khantri and new Congress entrant from BJP Sanjay Singh.</b>
Many of these heavyweights are miffed with the suggestion, as it is fraught with risks. They fear that if they lose the Assembly elections, they may not get a ticket for the next Parliament polls thereby putting a question mark over their political career.
Some of them are now trying to wriggle out from the test by convincing senior party leaders that exposing seniors to the State's inhospitable political terrain was not advisable in the long-term interests of the party, sources said.
CWC member Noor Bano, who is in-charge of party affairs in Jharkhand, is reported to have met Ashok Gehlot, the AICC general secretary in-charge of UP, and told him that contesting Assembly elections was beyond her status.
While an AICC functionary tried to downplay the move as "a mere proposal", Pramod Tiwari, leader of the Congress legislature party in UP welcomed Rahul's suggestion.
"It will send the right massage to the people. If senior leaders contest Assembly polls, it will not only increase the chance of the party increasing its tally substantially but also energise the Congress workers at the grassroots level," he told the media at the AICC headquarters.
<b>Union Minister of State for Steel Akhilesh Das, who is one of Amethi MP's close confidants, is also in favour of the senior party leaders to be fielded in the crucial elections. "I am ready to contest for the Assembly is asked to do so," he told the media in Lucknow.</b>
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Pioneer.com
Yogesh Vajpeyi | New Delhi
Senior Congress leaders in Uttar Pradesh are running for cover following Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi's suggestion that the party should field heavyweights, including former MPs and senior PCC functionaries in the State Assembly elections.
While some of them are trying to get out of the trap by pleading that it will be beneath their status, others have started looking for safe constituencies.
The Amethi MP, who is overseeing the party's come back strategy in Uttar Pradesh from the back-stage is reported to have made the suggestion at a recent meeting of State Congress leaders.
He asked all former MPs, zonal in-charges appointed by the party high command to galvanise the party in different regions of Uttar Pradesh to contest for the Assembly elections because they had a good profile and the chances of their victory were good.
Apart from State Congress Chief Salman Khurshid, other senior leaders likely to be affected by <b>Rahul Gandhi's proposal, include former MP Khan Gufran Zahidi, Congress Working Committee member Noor Bano, Rita Bahuguna, RPN Singh, Rajesh Pati Tripathi, Raj Bahadur, Nirmal Khantri and new Congress entrant from BJP Sanjay Singh.</b>
Many of these heavyweights are miffed with the suggestion, as it is fraught with risks. They fear that if they lose the Assembly elections, they may not get a ticket for the next Parliament polls thereby putting a question mark over their political career.
Some of them are now trying to wriggle out from the test by convincing senior party leaders that exposing seniors to the State's inhospitable political terrain was not advisable in the long-term interests of the party, sources said.
CWC member Noor Bano, who is in-charge of party affairs in Jharkhand, is reported to have met Ashok Gehlot, the AICC general secretary in-charge of UP, and told him that contesting Assembly elections was beyond her status.
While an AICC functionary tried to downplay the move as "a mere proposal", Pramod Tiwari, leader of the Congress legislature party in UP welcomed Rahul's suggestion.
"It will send the right massage to the people. If senior leaders contest Assembly polls, it will not only increase the chance of the party increasing its tally substantially but also energise the Congress workers at the grassroots level," he told the media at the AICC headquarters.
<b>Union Minister of State for Steel Akhilesh Das, who is one of Amethi MP's close confidants, is also in favour of the senior party leaders to be fielded in the crucial elections. "I am ready to contest for the Assembly is asked to do so," he told the media in Lucknow.</b>
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