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| Sonia Gandhi is angry, stops UP poll list | | Corruption allegations find a forceful expression | | NEW DELHI, MAR 14:
The Congress supremo, Sonia Gandhi, has taken many a stalwart in her party by surprise while spewing fire against "dishonest" acts by some Congressmen in Uttar Pradesh (UP). She has put on hold the release of the list of Congress candidates for the upcoming Asembly polls in UP.
According to knowledgeable sources, Sonia Gandhi's decision followed revelations that money changed hands while including names of certain individuals in the panel of prospective candidates. These sources told EARLY TIMES that the matter came to light in a report submitted by a 58-member team appointed by her parliamentarian son, Rahul Gandhi, to visit all 52 districts of Uttar Pradesh incognito.
The team submitted its report on Tuesday, Mar 13. Based on their verbal reports, Rahul Gandhi on Sunday requested his mother not to trust anyone and take direct control of poll management in UP. According to sources, besides asking the UP Congress unit to send her its list of prospective candidates, she has categorically told them not to finalise any alliance without her permission.
The Congress party intends to firm up a pre-poll alliance with some friendly parties including the Rashtriya Lok Dal, Jan Morcha of former Prime Minister VP Singh and the Communist Party of India (CPI). The political standing of the Congress aspirants was exposed as Rahul Gandhi's secret team started collecting information about the image, winning chances and contribution of the aspirants to their respective constituencies.
Sources said that the the report revealed that many zonal heads took money from the aspirants to recommend their names for inclusion in the panel of prospective candidates. The name of former Amethi MP, Sanjay Singh, figures prominently in the report for recommending names of two to three aspirants who have cases of murder registered against them. In another case, the report said, a party leader in charge of Agra area took Rs1 million from an aspirant to include his name in the list.
On his advice the Congress president asked national general secretary, Ashok Gehlot, head of the party screening committee for Uttar Pradesh, not to finalise the list of candidates but make a panel of candidates from each Assembly constituency and send it to her with their personal details. She also asked the UP Congress chief, Salman Khurshid, to send her the detailed background of each candidate the State unit has recommended to the screening committee. These directives have created a flutter in the State Congress unit as well as among the zonal heads, who had been appointed at the recommendations of Rahul Gandhi.
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