Congress workers want Priyanka Gandhi to contest from Bhopal

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh Congress workers who have been dropping names of cine-stars as party's candidates from Bhopal and Indore seats have incurred the wrath of party leaders. However, party leaders welcomed the idea of AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to be fielded from here, a seat Congress last won in 1984.

After suggesting names of Kareena Kapoor from Bhopal and Salman Khan from Indore, Congress workers have now put-up bill boards in the city asking for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to be fielded from Bhopal.

"Respected Priyankaji should be made party candidate from Bhopal," the bill boards said, hours before she was officially appointed as Congress national general secretary for Uttar Pradesh East. Though Congress leaders hugely accepted the name of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra even as she was appointed party general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh East, they were infuriated with suggestion of giving Lok Sabha tickets to cine-stars.



Minister for PWD and former MP Sajjan Singh Verma expressed his anger with party workers' demanding to field movie stars Kareena Kapoor and Salman Khan from the Bhopal and Indore seats.

"Congress party still has leaders. We are not dead. I would request our party workers to check ground realities before making such demands and comments," an irate Sajjan Singh Verma said. "Previously the party sent cine-star Rekha and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar to the Rajya Sabha. Congress party hardly gained anything from it. It is because of our mistakes that a seat like Bhopal has turned into a BJP bastion," the minister said speaking to reporters at the state PCC office on Wednesday afternoon.

It is true that Congress leaders have repeatedly failed to siege BJP's Bhopal and Indore Lok Sabha fortresses. Bhopal was last won by the Congress in 1984 by KN Pradhan and Indore has been represented by incumbent Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for eight terms.

Asked if Congress workers are nervous of another defeat in 2019 at the hands of the BJP in these two seats, state PCC media committee chairperson Shobha Oza said, "After our assembly election victory, workers are enthusiastic and want to win these four urban seats of Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur and Gwalior which we have been losing. They want strong candidates and for a few workers, a glamorous cinematic face could get votes. But that is what they feel."

About Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as candidate from Bhopal, Shobha Oza explained, "Everyone wanted Priyankaji to formally join Congress and contest the elections. It's a pan-India demand. And today, when she has been appointed a national general secretary, the impact will be for the benefit of the Congress party because is she is popular. But whether she will contest from Bhopal? Well, that will be for her to decide because from the beginning both Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi have made it clear that her decision to join politics or contest polls will be entirely her decision."

Last week, some local leaders led by a councillor from the Bhopal municipal corporation wrote to AICC president Rahul Gandhi asking for Kareena Kapoor to be fielded as Congress candidate from Bhopal. Councillor Yogendra Singh Guddu argued that Kareena was the "bahu" of Bhopal and her father-in-law former cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi contested as party candidate from the seat in 1996. He, however, lost to BJP's Sushil Chandra Varma.

When Kareena Kapoor dismissed the idea of contesting elections saying she has neither been approached nor interested but would concentrate on her acting career, another group of Congress workers demanded fielding of Salman Khan from Indore. Party's state secretary Rakesh Yadav demanded that Salman Khan who was born in Indore be fielded so that the youth of the city may get employment in tinsel town.