Delayed tickets queer pitch for rebels

FEAR OF ?vibhisans? (read rebel candidates) making a dent in the party vote bank this time had been taken care of seemingly with an effective and common strategy adopted by various political parties.

FEAR OF ‘vibhisans’ (read rebel candidates) making a dent in the party vote bank this time had been taken care of seemingly with an effective and common strategy adopted by various political parties.

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Virtually every prominent political party including the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Samajwadi Party and the Congress delayed the allotment of tickets to its candidates leaving the rebel with no option.

Only about two-dozen candidates loyal to various political parties were able to file their nomination papers. However, most of them could do it only as independent candidates.

Call it experience of the prominent political parties during past polls or a lesson from the Ram Charit Manas, the Samajwadi Party, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress have, at least this time, succeeded to a great extent in stopping these rebels from damaging the prospects of their official candidates.

The BJP, whose candidates had to taste defeat mainly because of ‘vibhisans’ at least in two-dozen wards in the last local bodies elections, was extra cautious this time. After the initial hiccup because of its former MLA Neeraj Chaturvedi switching loyalty to join SP and being declared its official mayoral candidate, after he was denied the same by the BJP, the party leaders deliberately deferred the ticket allotment to the last minute.

The party leaders had to be all the more cautious, as Uma Bharti’s Bharatiya Jan Shakti party state general secretary Viveksheel Shukla had said that his party’s priority would be to field rebel BJP candidates in 50 wards.

The BJP think-tank though finalised the list of corporation candidates about 48 hours before, the organisation office-bearers ensured it did not become known till few hours before the last day of filing nominations. The BJP declared the list after 11 pm on Sunday night.

Similarly, the Samajwadi Party declared the list of official candidates after 9 pm on Sunday. But the Congress outsmarted all by becoming the last party to declare the list as late as early morning today. Several leaders were deputed to give party symbols to its candidates at their residences.

This strategy ensured that most of the rebels could neither switch loyalty to other parties nor file nominations even as independent candidates barring a few including Arti Dixit, Haji Abrar Ahmed, Inderdeep Singh Nanda, Rajeev Mehrotra, Ashutosh Pandey, Kedar Gupta etc.

Several political pundits also corroborated that the strategy was adopted to defeat the purpose of the rebels only.