Sonia to take call on Prez son

Congress president Sonia Gandhi will take a call on the candidature of around a dozen relatives of leaders, including that of President Pratibha Patil’s son Rajendra, for the October 13 assembly elections in Maharashtra.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi will take a call on the candidature of around a dozen relatives of leaders, including that of President Pratibha Patil’s son Rajendra, for the October 13 assembly elections in Maharashtra.

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A greenhorn, Rajendra wants to contest from Amravati, the seat held by

Sunil Deshmukh, minister of state for finance, who his supporters say, would fight as an independent if he is divested of his seat.

“As the President is involved, the issue is ticklish… Amravati did not come up for discussion at the central election committee meeting on Sunday,’’ said a party source.

Besides Rajendra, other fresh relatives aspiring for a ticket include Amit Deshmukh, son of Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Preneeti Shinde, daughter of Union Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Rahul Thakre, son of state unit chief Manikrao Thakre, Sagar Meghe, son of MP Datta Meghe and Vishwajit, son of Patangrao Kadam.

Rajendra’s candidature has created a piquant situation for the Congress that rejected the claims of nine fresh relatives in Haryana including MP Naveen Jindal’s brother-in-law, Avtar Singh Badana’s wife, Arvind Sharma’s mother and state unit chief M C Mullana’s son.

The CEC, which includes Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, cleared over 140 names for Maharashtra.

The Congress is set to contest 174 and the NCP 114 of the 288 assembly seats.