NEW DELI: Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday gave the Congress ticket to President of India Pratibha Patil’s son Rajendra Shekhawat to contest from Amravati the ensuing Maharashtra Provincial Assembly elections on Oct. 13.
The ticket to President Pratibha Patil’s son Rajendra Shekhawat has kindled hopes among the other party leaders, who are seeking party tickets for their own sons and daughters, triggering a new controversy on dynastic politics.
Apart from President Pratibha Patil’s son, Himachal Pradesh Gov. Prabha Rau’s daughter Charulata Tokas, Union Heavy Industry Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s son Amit Deshmukh, Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shince’s daughter Pranati Shinde, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) President Manikrao Thakre’s son Rahul Thakre and former MPCC President Ranjit Deshmukh’s son Ashish Deshmukh are among the ticket-seekers. Other Congress leaders lobbying for party nomination are former Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil for his daughter-in-law Archana Patil, senior leader Datta Meghe for his son Sagar Meghe and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane for his son Nilesh.
The Congress is now in a dilemma. Having obliged the president of India, the party will find it increasingly more difficult to ward off claims of the other senior leaders, lobbying tickets for their kith and kin.
In the wake of the Congress electoral debacle in the Rajasthan Assembly elections in 1993, the then Prime Minister and Congress President P V Narasimha Rao had set up the K Karunakaran Committee to go into the causes for the debacle. The Karunakaran Committee Report identified tickets-distribution for the relatives of the Congress leaders as the cause for the electoral debacle. But the Congress hardly seems to learn its lessons, as it appears to be persisting with the practice.
