Sanjay out,Cong to try Luck-now

AICC general secretary and in-charge of UP Digvijay Singh said on Tuesday that with Dutt out of fray as the Samajwadi Party candidate,there was no reason for it to stay out of battle for the Lucknow seat.

“Since Dutt has not been allowed to contest,we will field our candidate from Lucknow and will leave no stone unturned to ensure our victory. The candidate’s name will be made public within two days,” Singh said. The SP had announced Dutt’s candidature after which the Congress had decided not to field a candidate in deference to the old ties of the actor’s father with the party.

Explaining the Congress decision,Singh said: “We had a soft corner for Sanjay Dutt because of Sunil Duttji (who was a Congressman). But since Sanjay is not contesting,we will not support any other candidate from Lucknow.” He denied having offered support for the candidature of Dutt’s wife Manyata who was being tipped as a stand-by SP candidate in the event of the actor being denied permission to contest.

Singh said since the SP had left four seats for the Congress,“we also plan to leave some seats for them,including the ones from where Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav are contesting”.

Meanwhile,probable candidates for Lucknow were discussed at a UP Congress meeting held here earlier in the day. Besides Singh,state Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi was also present in the meeting.

Singh said the Congress candidate would be a local leader. Joshi said a final decision would be taken by party president Sonia Gandhi,since “this has been the tradition”.

Among the names under consideration are Ashok Nigam,additional solicitor general of India; Subodh Srivastava,chief spokesperson of the UP Congress,Ramesh Srivastava,a former student leader of Lucknow University,and Manzoor Ahmad,chairperson of the minority cell of the party.

Singh said the Congress had announced 56 candidates,and will come out with a list of another 10 to 12 candidates. “In any case,we will fight not less than 65 seats in the state,” said Joshi. The state has 80 constituencies.

Gandhis to hit campaign trail on April 3
Sonia and Rahul Gandhi will begin their election campaign in UP from April 3 in different districts of Poorvanchal that will go to polls in the first phase. Rahul will hold public meetings in Chandauli,Khushinagar and Maharajganj on April 3 and then file his nomination papers in Amethi on April 4. Sonia will address gatherings in Bansgaon,Salempur and Varanasi on April 5 and is expected to file her nomination papers on April 6 in Rae Bareli. — ENS