Dissension over distribution of party tickets for the ensuing Assembly polls has deepened further in Congress fold with a prominent Congress face in sprawling Bastar Mankuram Sodhi and his son and former Minister Shankar Sodhi and senior leader of Bijapur Sakni Chandraiyya resigning from the party on Wednesday and the latter even joining the BJP bandwagon.
Notably, after the declaration of Congress candidates list for 17 candidates, out of which 16 to go to polls in first phase on November 11, senior leaders who were in contention for the tickets have raised the storm of protest as the party organisation preferred fielding 12 new faces out of 17 ignoring the claims of veterans.
Mankuram Sodhi, who was elected as independent candidate from Keshkal assembly seat in 1962 on the support of the then Bastar Maharaja Praveer Chand Bhanj Deo and thereafter represented Kondagaon constituency four times out of which three times on Congress ticket and was also Member of Parliament besides holding Ministry of Excise Department in Arjun Singh ministry, his son Shankar Sodhi, representing Kondagaon assembly seat twice 1993 and 1998 in Madhya Pradesh Assembly besides being forest Minister in Digvijay Singh cabinet and Sports Minister in Ajit Jogi cabinet resigned from the party in protest when his candidature was ignored second time and party preferring a lesser known Mohan Markam in his place from Kondagaon.
likewise, CGPCC secretary and a strong contender for party ticket from Bijapur, Sakni Chandraiyya, also resigned from the party in protest as Vikram Shah Mandawi was given ticket from the seat. Chandraiyya along with his wife Jamuna Sakni, a district panchayat member, not only resigned but also joined BJP along with five of his supporters on Wednesday in presence of Chief Minister Raman Singh dealing a grave blow to Congress ahead of the Assembly polls.
Sources say that the several other key leaders of the Congress are also flexing muscles and likely to either join the BJP or will fight as Independent candidates against party’s official nominees after being Rs ignored’ by the party in tickets allotment. The Congress needs to significantly improve its performance in Bastar in next month’s polls to stage a comeback in power in the mineral-rich state. The Congress managed to win just one seat in 2008 assembly polls out of the total 12 seats in Bastar.