Ticket to son, CM sop to Vaghela

Gujarat PCC chief Shankar Sinh Vaghela was all but declared the Congress’ Chief Ministerial candiate tonight after the party gave ticke...

Gujarat PCC chief Shankar Sinh Vaghela was all but declared the Congress’ Chief Ministerial candiate tonight after the party gave ticket to his son Mahendra Sinh Vaghela.

Making public the second list of its 56 candidates — having already announced 108 earlier — the Congress, has put the ball in the BJP’s court by withholding two crucial seats: Maninagar, to be fought by Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Ellisbridge, where it expects Modi’s bete noir Haren Pandya to play the spoilsport.

Sources close to Kamal Nath, AICC general secretary in charge of Gujarat, confirmed tonght that Shankar Singh Vagehla was indeed their CM candidate though he himself has not been fielded. They explained: ‘‘The fact that his son Mahendra Singh, who is not in active politics, has been pushed to the arena is a strong-enough message for all. This is on the lines of Assam when a ticket was given to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s brother.’’

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Although Kamal Nath denied any infighting between Vaghela and former PCC chief Amar Singh Choudhary, which apparently caused the Congress to delay the disclosure of its second list by over 24 hours, the party has done its bit to nip the differences in the bud. So, alongwith Vaghela junior, Amar Singh’s son Tushar too has been given a ticket.

As for the Congress withholding its man for Maninagar, sources said they were still not too sure about Modi sticking to this seat. ‘‘For all we know, the jittery CM can still change tracks. We are keeping nothing to chance.’’ Probably keeping this in mind, the Congress has kept as many as 17 seats undeclared.

Senior Congress leaders admitted that the Pandya factor could play a signifcant role not just in Ellisbridge but in several other regions too. Take for instance Dariapur and Shahpur: the two most communally-sensitve areas in Ahmedabad. Here too, the Congress has preferred to wait a little longer to gauge the ‘‘evolving political equation’’.

It’s keeping this equation in mind that nine Congress candidates announced in the first list have been replaced by others. ‘‘We have done the necessary corrections,’’ Kamal Nath quipped.

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For Godhra, the party has fielded its sittig MLA Rajinder Singh. This is an all-important seat, where the ruling party is yet undecided on who to field, someone from the BJP or the VHP.

Kamal Nath told The Indian Express that they were prepared to take the BJP head-on in Gujarat. ‘‘The BJP is on the run with their communal programme exposed to all. Our selection of candidates has been done keeping in view the requirement to expose the BJP’s misrule.’’

As of now, the Congress has left a lone seat (Bhavnagar North) to its ally, the CPI(M).

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