National

Congress set to enter Lucknow

LUCKNOW: With actor Sanjay Dutt being denied permission to contest elections, the Congress is gearing to enter the contest in Lucknow.

The party earlier maintained that it would not field a candidate if Mr. Dutt contested from Lucknow.

All India Congress Committee general secretary and in-charge of party’s Uttar Pradesh affairs Digvijay Singh said at a press conference here on Tuesday that the party would field a candidate if the actor was not contesting.

Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Rita Bahuguna Joshi said the final decision would be taken by the party’s central leadership.

Amid the developments, several candidates have staked their claim for the nomination and submitted their bio-data to the UPCC. UPCC Media Cell chairman Manzoor Ahmed was among the first ones to submit his bio-data.

He contested the mayoral election here in 2006. He is banking his claim on the Muslim vote-support.

Among others, chairman of UPCC Backward Classes Cell and former MLA Vinod Chaudhary considers himself a strong contender for the party ticket.

Claiming that he had a proven track record in the party organisation, he told The Hindu that he was senior to both Lalji Tandon of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Akhilesh Das Gupta of the Bahujan Samaj Party [respective party candidates for Lucknow].

“While I was elected MLA in 1989, Mr. Tandon became an MLC for the first time in 1990. Mr. Gupta became MP much later,” he added.

Additional Solicitor-General Ashok Nigam, UPCC chief spokesperson Subodh Srivastava and PCC spokesman and the former president of the Lucknow University Students Union, Ramesh Srivastava, are others vying for nomination. Informed sources said Mr. Srivastava’s claim was being backed by the UPCC president.

Since 1989, no Congress candidate has been elected from the Lucknow seat. The former Union Minister, Sheila Kaul, was the last Congress MP from here. She was elected in 1984.

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