Gloomy picture for Cong in NE seats

NEW DELHI: The Congress may view "regularisation'' of unauthorised colonies as a potent poll weapon, but going by an internal survey this is not h
elping it overcome traditional incumbency factors like infighting and non-performance of sitting MLAs in the 10 assembly segments in the north-east parliamentary constituency.

The party's survey on these assembly seats about 500 of the 1,600 colonies to be regularised are in this area indicates that Congress has a fight on its hands and that the regularisation mantra may not be good enough to deliver the boost it seeks.

Ironically, the survey shows that the only seat where the party can hope for a win is Rohtas Nagar, represented by Sheila Dikshit's bete noire, Ram Babu Sharma. Here, incidentally, all four Congress candidates for the MCD pollslast year had bitten the dust. Congress won in all but one of the 10 segments during the last assembly elections.

The only other sitting Congress MLA who seems reasonably popular is S S Bittu who won from Timarpur but here too the party lost in all the MCD wards. The survey notes that Bittu has "fallen out with Jagdish Tytler. He (Tytler) seems to be ensuring he does not get the ticket and could work against him in the eventuality of Bittu contesting.''

In Burari where the constituents are predominantly Poorvanchali, SC and Tyagis, the sitting MLA, Jile Singh Chauhan, is described in the survey as "thoroughly unpopular'' with a mere 17% approval and recommends that the Congress should either get a local Tyagi to contest or take on board Vinod Nagar of the Lok Janshakti Party of Ram Vilas Paswan.

In Ghonda, the survey says, sitting MLA Bhisham Sharma of Congress has become "increasingly unpopular'' and there is a risk of the BSP that came second in 2003 making substantial inroads with the help of the Gujjars who form 19% of the constituency's population. The party had won in last year's MCD elections. The survey has given the names of Nathu Singh, a Gujjar, Ramkrishna Sharma, a Brahmin, and Mahendra Jain, ex-MLA from Baghpat, as possible choices for Congress candidature.

In Seelampur there is severe anti-incumbency against sitting MLA Chaudhry Mateen according to the survey and the name of three-time councillor Razia Sultana has been proposed.

According to the survey, the Congress would ensure "definite loss'' if it fields sitting MLA Vinay Sharma from this seat. Sharma has an "approval rating of 11% among Muslims and 19% among Brahmins. The BJP had won in 1993 and 1998 due to division of Muslim votes. Among the three candidates whose names have been proferred in the survey, two are Muslims Tariq Siddiqui and Abdul Aziz Malik. The third possible candidate according to the survey is Deepak Gothi.

In Seemapuri, Congress MLA Veer Singh Dhingan has "anti-incumbency'' working against him but has a fairly decent approval rating of 50% and "may yet win''. The other candidates who the survey says "could be considered'' are Mohini Jeenwal and Kiranvati Tank. In Gokalpur on the other hand the survey clearly says that Baljor Singh of erstwhile Nandnagri should be denied ticket in favour of a "young Valmiki.''

There is more to Congress's woes in the area than this survey. In Karawal Nagar interestingly, where the sitting MLA is Mohan Singh Bisht of the BJP, there is already disgruntlement in the offing with the seat having been promised to Jage Ram Bhati, former state president of BSP who recently returned to Congress. The seat has been split into two during delimitation.

Source : Times Of India