File photo of former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal
The Congress is likely to re-nominate former railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal from Chandigarh, in a move that signals his political rehabilitation. But former Commonwealth Games organizing committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi, who represents Pune in the Lok Sabha, is not likely to be as lucky. The party has, sources said, made up its mind to deny a ticket to him, or his wife Meera.
The party, which had declared the names of 194 candidates on Saturday, is expected to come out with its second list tomorrow which is likely to cover the states of Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha, Nagaland, Sikkim and Goa.
A three-term Lok Sabha member, Mr Bansal, 65, was forced to resign from the Union Cabinet in May after his nephew Vijay Singla was arrested for allegedly accepting bribe to facilitate a plum posting for a senior official in the Railways, which his uncle headed. A CBI probe, however, gave a clean chit to Mr Bansal in July, arguing that there was no evidence to link him with the bribery scandal.
"It's unfair to call Mr Bansal tainted," observed Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala.
The party, however, appears to have rebuffed efforts by Mr Kalmadi to secure a party ticket, either for himself or for his wife. As chairman of the Commonwealth Games organizing committee, the Pune MP found himself in the centre of a mega corruption scandal, and was arrested by the CBI in April 2011. He is presently out on bail.
The election committee, sources pointed out, has not yet taken a call on offering the Nanded seat to former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan. He had to step down from his post in 2010 after it was revealed that three of his relatives had bought flats in Adarsh Housing Society.