Amar Singh pre-empts Congress yet again

Nafisa Ali was being considered as the Congress candidate for Lucknow at the highest level of the party

Pradeep Kapoor Lucknow Hardnews

Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Amar Singh has shown his prowess in pre-empting and poaching from rival political parties when it comes to fielding candidates, particularly in Lucknow.Take for instance, Sanjay Dutt's case. At a time when the Congress high command was discussing the pros and con of giving a ticket to Sanjay Dutt, convicted in the Bombay blast case, Amar Singh sprang a surprise. He announced Sanjay Dutt as the SP candidate from Lucknow.

Amar Singh had also announced that if Sanjay Dutt was debarred by the Supreme Court for contesting the polls, the actor's wife Manyata would replace him as the SP candidate in Lucknow. Besides Manyata, the SP had also made arrangements for fielding lawyer and former advocate general, Virendra Bhatia, and former minister and MP, Ashok Bajpai, from Lucknow.

After the Supreme Court refused permission to Sanjay Dutt, Virendra Bhatia was almost prepared to file the nomination paper. But, suddenly, another surprise by Amar Singh: announcement of actor and activist, Nafisa Ali, as the Lucknow candidate. It's well worth mentioning that Nafisa Ali, who was with the Congress and known to be close to Sonia Gandhi and Sheila Dixit, was being discussed at the highest level as the Congress candidate for the Lucknow seat. In fact, as soon as the news of the Supreme Court's denial of permission to Sanjay Dutt broke, UPCC President Rita Bahuguna had told Hardnews that Nafisa Ali's was one of the names being mulled over as Congress candidate for the Lucknow seat.

When confronted by the media about candidate poaching, Amar Singh said. "There was no harm in that as the Congress, too, has given tickets to those who had defected from the Samajwadi Party." As an example, he cited Salim Sherwani, fielded by the Congress from Badaun.