Poorvanchalis in Cong rue 'underrepresentation' in candidates' list

Unhappy with the "inadequate" representation of people from the Poorvanchal region of eastern UP and western Bihar in the upcoming municipal elections, Congress leaders belonging to the community sent a letter to party VP Rahul Gandhi on Sunday, seeking his intervention in the matter of ticket distribution in the city.

Pradeep Kumar Pandey, Convener of the State Poorvanchal Congress Committee, wrote the letter to Gandhi after the first list of candidates for the municipal polls featured just three names from the Poorvanchal region.

He said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was winning elections by luring Poorvanchalis, and even the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Manoj Tiwari, making it necessary for the Congress to take immediate action in this matter.

"Congress has been losing elections because of non-representation of Poorvanchali voters. Other parties are taking advantage of this and are winning the elections. The first list of candidates with 140 names has just three candidates from the Poorvanchal region, which reduces our chances of winning the civic body elections. I have written a letter to Rahul ji, so that we get better representation on the list yet to be declared," Pandey said.

He demanded that as many as 51 out of a total 272 candidates should be from the region, to ensure victory in the much-awaited civic polls, to be held on April 23. Nearly 13,210,206 voters, including 7,315,915 men, 5,893,418 women, and 793 voters in the other category would decide the fate of 272 seats.