Outsiders cause heartburn for Congress loyalists

When the Congress party chief issued letters to seniors about selection of candidates for the upcoming civic polls, one of the main criteria was to ensure that a particular candidate selected to represent a ward is a resident of the ward.

But eyebrows are now being raised at the possibility of outside candidates finding a place in a ward's candidate list. This came to light when the party bosses started circulating names of probable candidates' in the party circle.

For example, resident of Dani Limda and senior Congress member Badruddin Sheikh is said to have been considered for a ticket in Behrampura ward. A Vatva resident is said to have been finalised to contest election from Jamalpur and a Kankaria resident is likely to get a ticket from Rakhiad ward!

Needless to say party workers from Rakhial, Dani Limda and other wards are protesting against the outsiders and demanding their removal from the list of probable. "We demanded a Muslim candidate in our ward as the probable names make no mention of one," said a resident of Rakhial ward protesting at the GPCC office.

A Congress MLAs from Jamalpur constituency Shabir Kabliwala is one of the disappointed members. To protest against the party policy, Kabliwala also organised a public meet at Astodia on Thursday night. The buzz is that, Kabliwala is also considering to resign if candidates he pitched for are not considered for tickets.