They say a coterie that controls power in the party is cornering the party's tickets and that, in the first place, the wrong seats have been chosen as the party's share in its adjustment with the Bahujan Samaj Party - to suit particular leaders rather than the party's best interests.
The object of their ire is Pradesh Congress Committee President Jitendra Prasada. They say Prasada has negotiated with BSP chief Kanshi Ram for the constituencies that suit the coterie around him, rather than for the ones that would be in the party's best interests.
The party's scheduled caste leaders in the state are particularly upset that not a single reserved constituency in the state has been placed in the Congress's share. A group of workers, led by Baldev Chaudhary, sat on a dharna outside the AICC headquarters yesterday, threatening that a couple of them would immolate themselves in protest.
There have so far been three meetings of the party's election committee for the state to decide on candidates. According to one party leader, Saturday's meeting had to be put off because of protests against the selection of constituencies from AICC general secretary BP Maurya and senior leader Chandrajeet Yadav.
Madhavsinh Solanki, the AICC general secretary in charge of the state, and CLP leader Pramod Tiwari, who is close to Prasada, were then reportedly despatched to Kanshi Ram, to discuss changes. Ram, they are said to have reported, told them he had given Prasada the seats he wanted and couldn't change them now.
State leaders say they were initially told the party would take the constituencies in which it had fared relatively well in the May Lok Sabha elections and had won more than 20,000 votes in the 1993 assembly elections.
However, they now learn that the party has taken a number of constituencies from where it fared poorly both times. They allege that this has been done to accommodate the interests of one or other of Prasada's coterie or former ministers and others close to Prasada.
They point out, for instance, that the party has taken Agota (Bulandshahr district), where it got 2,551 votes in 1996 and 3,423 in 1993, Etah (presumably for Balram Singh Yadav's sake), where the party got 6,413 votes in 1996 and 4,681 in 1993, and Bhojipur (Bareilly), where the party got 710 votes in 1996 and 10,102 in 1993.
They also complain that the party has taken no assembly constituency in as many as 18 of the 85 Lok Sabha constituencies, but has taken three in Bareilly (near Prasada's home town), five in Aligarh district, three in Hardoi and six in Tiwari's home district, Pratapgarh. Some of Prasada's critics say they had been promised that the party would contest at least one segment in each Lok Sabha constituency. They see a dark conspiracy in the decision to leave the party's flag out of 18 constituencies: These, they say, will be handed over to the BSP at the beginning of talks before the next Lok Sabha polls. And the party units in these districts will be allowed to atrophy.
