With last date for filing of nominations for the Gorakhpur and Phoolpur Parliamentary constituencies is just four days away, Congress still not wake up it’s slumber to decide the candidates.
Interestingly, the sources maintained that the Party is waiting for the Samajwadi Party and even the Apna Dal to declare their candidates so that if they had a winnable contestant then they should forward them support in the name of maintaining Opposition unity for the next Parliament elections. However, their plan is likely to be shattered as Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), who not contested by-polls for last many years had this time has geared up to fight the elections just to show their strength for the next Parliament elections.
Sources in the Congress maintained that the Party had yet to start any serious exercise to select some fighting candidate for the Gorakhpur and Phoolpur Parliament elections. With state president Raj Babbar is away and had not visited the state since Varanasi division meeting of the Party workers and leaders held on last Sunday, the Party had no competent authority who could interact with the local leaders of the Party in Gorakhpur and Allahabad to recommend the name to the Party president Rahul Gandhi so that a decision could be made.
Sources further said that a big section of the senior Congress leaders claimed that either someone from the former prime minister lal Bhadhur Shastri’s family, his son Sunil Shastri or Anil Shastri, should be fielded from Phoolpur constituency or Apna Dal leader, Krishna Patel should be supported as she could give sleepless night to the BJP and can also upset the ruling Party with a defeat.
For the Gorakhpur Parliament seat, while senior leaders said that some strong Brahmin candidate should be fielded in case the BJP go with backward or Thakur, otherwise the local leaders like Siddharth Priya Srivastava, Ramnath Nishad, Rajendra Prasad Yadav should be considered for contesting the polls. Dr PN Bhatt and Astbhuja Tripathi, both leaders from Gorakhpur also showed their interest for contesting from Gorakhpur.