JAIPUR, May 2: At least four senior Rajasthan Congress leaders are biding their time, waiting for the forthcoming Rajya Sabha elections which they hope will haul them out of the political wilderness they are currently in. Elections for four seats in the state are due in June with the completion of term by Singh Bhandari and Shiv Charan Singh Gujar of the BJP, Mool Chand Meena of the Congress and R P Modi, an Independent.Given its strength in the House, winning one seat is likely to be a cakewalk for the Congress. The four senior party leaders waiting for rehabilitation are former chief ministers Shiv Charan Mathur and Jagannath Pahadia and former Union Ministers Nawal Kishore Sharma and Girija Vyas.
Pahadia lost the recent Lok Sabha elections from the Bayana (reserve) constituency by a margin of nearly 5,000 votes. Having lost the Assembly election earlier, he can only bank on a Rajya Sabha seat now. Mathur returned to the Congress last year after an ignominious defeat from Bhilwara on a Congress(Tewari) ticket in the 1996 Lok Sabha elections but stayed away from the recent polls.
Sharma opted out of the poll arena this time though he had won the Alwar seat in 1996. On the other hand, Vyas lost her traditional Udaipur seat to a BJP nominee. The Rajya Sabha polls thus offer an opportunity to Mathur, Sharma and Vyas to stage a comeback. However, those opposed to them have an plan that could very well dash their hopes. Feelers have already been despatched proposing that the Rajya Sabha ticket be offered to a Muslim this time in order to give representation to the Muslim community, which voted en bloc for the party during the Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress had fielded a Muslim, Said Ahmed `Goodage' in the last Lok Sabha elections from Jaipur, a BJP-stronghold. He, however, lost to the BJP nominee by a huge margin. Having taken the cue from their party colleagues, Muslim leaders in the Rajasthan Congress are now striving hard to encash the idea of their claim to a representation.
Those in the raceinclude state Minority Cell convenor Nizam Mohammad, Nawab of Loharu Emaduddin Ahmed Khan alias Durru Mian, an MLA, Ashk Ali Tak, former chairperson of the Social Welfare Advisory Board Saria Khan and former ministers Zakia Inam and Hamida Begum.
Nizam Mohammad, a confidant of Rajasthan Congress President Ashok Gehlot, said that Muslims openly sided with the Congress in the recent polls and ensured the success of its nominees in 18 of the 25 constituencies. Since a Muslim candidate was not in a position to win any seat thanks to the role played by casteism, the Congress could make it up by rewarding the community with a Rajya Sabha seat. Ashk Ali Tak, a former legislator, is more widely known than Nizam Mohammad, but suffers from a lack of patronage by a powerful state leader a result of his own shifting loyalties.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
