NEW DELHI, Jan 20: Senior Congressman Balram Jakhar has hinted that he would not take the denial of ticket to him lying down. ``How can the party withdraw my nomination on the ground that I am facing a CBI chargesheet in the Jain-hawala case? Hasn't the Congress forged an alliance in Bihar with the Rashtriya Janata Dal whose president Laloo Prasad Yadav is also facing corruption charges? Surely, there cannot be two standards for judging a similar matter,'' he told ENS on Tuesday.That an uneasy Congress leadership is well aware of Jakhar's virtual threat of revolt became clear considering that the Central Election Committee (CEC) which held a three-hour meeting Tuesday evening to select candidates skipped Rajasthan all together and instead focussed on Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. Jakhar was nominated from Bikaner before the party president Sitaram Kesri withdrew the list of 16 candidates containing his name.To buttress his case, Jakhar reasons that ``Kesri himself had said that he was not against giving ticket to chargesheeted leaders. He said that unless convicted by a court of law, these persons should be deemed to be innocent.'' At the same time, Jakhar said he was sure of his candidature. ``If the Congress wants the Rajasthan seat, it will have to field me,'' he added.Not all CEC members - particularly those loyal to P V Narsimha Rao whose fate, on account of his having been chargesheeted, is inextricably linked with Jakhar - are happy with the way Kesri ``mishandled'' the situation by hastily withdrawing the second list. Many of them, is is learnt, have taken the position that since Kesri himself had directed that the list cleared by the CEC be withheld, he alone should take the responsibility for any change in it. ``If the buck has to stop somewhere, let it stop at Kesri,'' argued one of the disgruntled leaders.The usually affable V N Gadgil, lost his cool momentarily when asked about the reasons for the sudden withdrawal of second list. ``I am not obliged to disclose the reason. It is an internal matter of the party,'' he scowled. The issue of Jakhar's nomination now stands deferred by at least two days. CEC member Ghulam Nabi Azad disclosed after the meeting that as the the CEC has finalised almost the candidates from Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal but did not disclosed their names. According to sources, however, S S Ahluwalia - a Rajya Sabha member considered close to 10 Janpath - has been nominated from Asansol in West Bengal while another senior leader Priya Ranjan Das Munshi will be the party's candidate in the same state.
