It is proven once again that Rahul Gandhi is just a poster boy for the Congress party whose words aren’t valued much.
It is proven once again that Rahul Gandhi is just a poster boy for the Congress party whose words aren’t valued much.
How?
The second list of party’s 71 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls is out and it features tainted ministers. The list includes the name of former cabinet ministers Pawan Bansal and Subodhkant Sahay for their respective seats of Chandigarh and Ranchi.
It should be noted that Bansal was forced to resign in May last year after his nephew was accused of taking bribes in return for providing plush postings in the Railways Ministry. Sahay was asked to step down as Minister in 2012 after he was found to have sought favours for his kin in coal block allocation.
And all this happens while Rahul speaks about rooting out corruption repeatedly in his rallies.
Even his rants of dynastic politics did not get attention from the party high command. Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s wife Pratibha (Mandi) has been given ticket by the party. In fact, his two loyalists Chander Kumar (Kangra) and Mohan Lal Bragta (Simla) also received ticket for their boss’s loyalty to party high command.
Further, Rajbala Ola, the daughter in-law of late Union Minister Sisram Ola, has been fielded from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan. Sagar Meghe has been fielded from Wardha in place of his father Dutta Meghe.
The list includes renomination of several Union Ministers including M Veerappa Moily, Shashi Tharoor, V Narayanasamy, K C Venugopal, K V Thomas and Mullapally Ramchandran. The first list of 194 candidates was released on 8 March, over half of whom were sitting MP’s.
If we remember, in last years assembly elections too, Rahul’s rants were sidelined by party high command and as many as 16 politicians with criminal records were given ticket in Rajasthan. Similar was the case with Delhi where six candidates with serious criminal records were given tickets at the behest of former CM Sheila Dikshit.
However, this time, over one-third tickets have been given to the youth in this list. Nine Youth Congress office bearers have been given tickets. Though a majority of the seats given to the youth are seats where the party has little or no chance of winning, it still provides a face saver for Rahul.
But we cannot deny the possibility of more such names to figure in next list of candidates by Congress party. It is time that Rahul did some of his “nonsense” act like he did last time to be heard.
