NEW DELHI/AHMEDABAD, 25 November 2002 — Dissent against the distribution of tickets to contest Dec. 12 assembly elections continued to simmer in the Gujarat Congress yesterday as supporters of candidates attacked the party office for the second time in three days.
Supporters of Vipul Chaudhary, a former minister and a loyalist of state Congress President Shankarsinh Vaghela, came to the Congress headquarters yesterday afternoon to protest the denial of his nomination from the Mansa constituency of Gandhinagar district.
They ransacked the office, broke tube lights and chairs. They also staged a protest in front of Vaghela’s residence in Gandhinagar before coming to the Congress office.
A few Congress workers from Baroda rural constituency also protested against the Congress ticket for Anuj Patel. They claimed the Kshatriya community had the maximum voters in the constituency and a person from that community should have been nominated instead of someone from the Patel community.
Supporters of Farukh Sheikh, a Congress member of the dissolved assembly, had Friday evening ransacked the reception area and the president’s cabin at the Congress headquarters. They were upset that Sheikh might be denied a ticket.
Sheikh represented Kalupur constituency of Ahmedabad city in the 182-member house.
The Congress has announced 176 of its nominees so far and the rest are likely to be announced just before nominations close today.
Angry supporters told Congress secretary K.K. Sharma that they had heard from Ahmad Patel, the influential political secretary to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, that Sheikh had been denied a ticket.
Sharma, in response, told the supporters to behave. “If you behave like this, let me assure you that it would not help your cause. Instead it may damage the prospects of your candidate.”
Sheikh was eventually denied a ticket. On Saturday, his supporters attacked the house of Naznin Bastavala, who is the Congress candidate from the Kalupur constituency.
Giving rest to speculations on which Congress candidate would take on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in Maninagar constituency, the party general secretary in charge of Gujarat affairs, Kamal Nath, announced the name of former BJP leader Jatin Ojha yesterday.
Ojha represented Sabarmati assembly constituency twice in the past and resigned from the BJP a year ago to join the Congress. His resignation came following serious differences with the then Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel.
