Cong dumps Rao in first list

Rao’s omission though points at the sharp divide in the party over his candidature. Only recently, Scindia had demanded that Rao should not be nominated as he was facing several criminal cases. While the Congress has left Behrampur and Nandyal (Rao’s second constituency) pending, it has nominated his son PV Rajeshwar Rao from Secunderabad.

According to the first list, the Congress, it seems, has accommodated all those sitting MPs who had recently threatened to revolt against Kesri’s leadership following his withdrawal of support to the United Front (UF) Government. Thus, T Subbarami Redi, Praful Patel, Dutta R Meghe and Pinaki Mishra — the lynchpins of the rebel group — have been nominated in the first round itself.

Several former Union Ministers too figure in the list: Santosh Mohan Deb, P Upendra, AR Antulay, Mallikarjun, Kamaluddin Ahmed, Shivraj Patil, KP Singh Deo, Girja Vyas and Kumari Selja.

The other important leaders who figured in today’s list include Rajesh Pilot, fielded from Dausa in Rajasthan, PA Sangma from Tura in Meghalaya, and AICC general secretary Oscar Fernandes from Udupi in Karnataka. The candidature of two Delhi leaders — AICC general secretary Meira Kumar from Karol Bagh and Jai Prakash Aggarwal from Chandni Chowk — was announced earlier along with that of RK Dhawan by Kesri.

But though Aggarwal and Meira Kumar are mentioned in the first list, Dhawan is not. Even Congress spokesman VN Gadgil’s explanation today that the list contained the names of "only sitting MPs" failed to hide efforts under way, apparently by the Sonia camp, to derail Dhawan. She is learnt to have summoned some CWC members within hours of Kesri declaring Dhawan’s nomination early this month.

Days after declaring Dhawan’s candidature, the party had announced its decision to field Arjun Singh from Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh. Gadgil maintained that they did not figure in the list because none of them is a sitting MP.

The first list contains nominations from 18 states, but none from Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Kerala from where the Congress bagged 22 seats in all.

Gadgil said the Congress Election Committee will meet for three days beginning January 17 to decide on the candidates for the remaining seats.