Five Congress ‘rebel’ candidates get audience with Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi meets five Congress 'rebel' candidates at the airport amid party tensions over seat allocations for upcoming elections.

While the Puducherry Pradesh Congress Committee was arguing against the six party candidates who are in fray in constituencies allocated to the DMK and the VCK in the INDIA bloc, party senior leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday gave the ‘rebel’ candidates audience and posed for photographs with them at the airport when he was leaving after addressing a public meeting as part of the Congress campaign for the April 9 polls in the Union Territory.

During the Congress-DMK standoff over sharing of seats for the elections, several Congress members had jumped into the poll fray by filing papers on the last day of submission of nominations on March 23. As many as 23 Congress members after collecting party authorisation forms from the PPCC leadership had filed nomination papers in their preferred constituencies. 

That night, the Congress and the DMK, however, managed to reach an agreement on sharing the total 30 seats among themselves and to provide one seat to the VCK from their kitty. The Left parties were kept out of the deal though they are part of the INDIA bloc. As per the agreement, the Congress agreed to contest 16 seats leaving 14 to the DMK. The DMK was to part with one seat from its quota to the VCK.  

After both the parties came to an understanding, the DMK, on the next day, managed to release a list of candidates for the 13 seats the party was allocated within the INDIA bloc. As far the Congress was concerned, it took two more days for the party to release its list of 16 candidates. By the time the party came out with the list, the last day for withdrawal of nominations was over.

As the last day of withdrawal of nominations ended on March 26, there were 22 candidates in fray as one withdrew the papers on his own. The PPCC leadership had maintained that only 16 candidates whose names found a mention in the list released by the party would be the official candidates of the Congress.

During interactions with media in the last few days, Congress leaders including party national general secretary Mukul Wasnik took a stand against those contesting against the DMK and the VCK. They also gave an impression that the AICC leadership was contemplating disciplinary action against the six candidates. The PPCC also issued a direction to the leaders not to participate in the campaign by the ‘rebel candidates’.