Poll 'musical chairs' get underway to avert defeat

With major political parties getting down to selecting their candidates for the general elections, they are flooded with requests by various sitting lawmakers to shift their seats in order to avoid certain defeat.

While the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) set the ball rolling by allowing its Uttar Pradesh state unit chief Vinay Katiyar and junior federal Minister for Sports Vijay Goel to move their constituencies, the Janata Dal (United), its key ally, is set to follow suit.

All top three JD (U) leaders, including its national president George Fernandes, parliamentary board chairman Sharad Yadav and senior leader Nitish Kumar, all federal ministers, are likely to change their constituencies to avoid defeat.

The BJP has put on hold naming its candidate from Muzaffarpur since Fernandes wants to contest from his old constituency that had first elected him in 1977 while he was still in prison. The seat was won by JD (U) leader Captain Jai Narain Prasad Nishad in 1999.

Nishad who is now with the BJP may be left in the lurch as Fernandes, who is also convenor of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will return to Muzaffarpur. Fernandes was elected to the last Lok Sabha from Nalanda.

The reason for Fernandes seeking a new constituency has a lot to do with the desire of Railway Minister Nitish Kumar to contest the Nalanda seat. Nalanda is a Kurmi caste dominated constituency and Nitish is considered the top Kurmi leader of Bihar.

Yadav on the other hand is seeking to move back to him home state Madhya Pradesh even though his rival Laloo Prasad Yadav, chief of Bihar's ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal, whom he had defeated by nearly 30,000 votes in 1999 from Madhepura, is himself set to shift to his old Chhapra seat.
Sharad Yadav is jittery about his chances since mafia don Pappu Yadav, a local of Madhepura, is tipped to contest the seat as candidate of the opposition alliance.

Yadav wants to contest from either Jabalpur or Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh. The Khajuraho seat was won in 1999 by the Congress party's spokesperson Satyavrat Chaturvedi while Jabalpur seat was won by the BJP's Jaishree Banerjee.

The BJP has so far allowed only Katiyar and Goel to change their constituencies. Katiyar facing an embarrassing defeat from Faizabad seat of Uttar Pradesh, which includes Ayodhya where the razed Babri Masjid once stood, will contest the Lakhimpur Kheri seat. Although the BJP had lost Kheri seat to the Samajwadi Party in 1999 by 4,500 votes, it is still considered safer than Faizabad.

Goel on the other hand has moved to Delhi Sadar form Chandni Chowk seat after his narrow victory by merely 1,900 votes in 1999.

The party has moved federal minister Prahlad Singh Patel from Balaghat seat of Madhya Pradesh to Chhindwara. This is, however, a tactical move since Patel is seen as the only leader who can defeat the sitting Congress lawmaker and one of its national general secretaries Kamal Nath. Kamal Nath has never lost the Chhindwara seat.

The only Congress leader allowed to move his constituency so far is former Madhya Pradesh chief minister S.C. Shukla, who will contest form Raipur instead of Mahasamund. However, it was more due to his unwillingness to cross swords with his younger brother V.C. Shukla, who is contesting the Mahasamund seat of Chhattisgarh state as the BJP's candidate.

All eyes in the Congress party is this time focussed on its president Sonia Gandhi, who may contest the Bellary seat of Karnataka leaving aside Amethi seat of Uttar Pradesh for one of her children, Priyanka or Rahul Gandhi. Sonia had won both seats in 1999 and had opted to retain the Amethi seat.