In Wardha primary, children of Cong leaders vie for Lok Sabha ticket

NAGPUR: In Wardha constituency, which was recently chosen for holding primary in Maharashtra to select a consensus candidate for Lok Sabha polls, the two main contenders in the reckoning are children of Congress stalwarts.

Wardha figured in the list of primaries at the expense of Yavatmal Lok Sabha constituency which was dropped along with Aurangabad, apparently due to factionalism in local units.

The two main contenders for the Lok Sabha ticket here are Sagar Meghe and Charulata Tokas.

While Sagar is the son of sitting MP Datta Meghe, Charulata is part of the Rahul brigade and is daughter of veteran Congress leader and former Rajasthan Governor (late) Prabha Rau.

According to sources, senior Meghe is not keen to contest elections due to his age and wants to hand over the reins to Sagar, a former BJP MLC who had joined Congress under late Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.

As far as Charulata is concerned, she has staked the claim for the seat on counts of loyalty and by virtue of being a former office-bearer of local body.

Both the aspirants had organised a couple of rallies for Congress in the district.

The AICC has sent observers to conduct internal elections to pick either of them and the process for the same is beginning from today, according to MPCC president Manikrao Thakre.

Kunal Banerjee and R Raju, the two observers are already camping here and will conduct the exercise, he told PTI.

Office-bearers of block and district Youth Congress, NSUI, Zilla Parishad and Municipal Council members of the party, Congress cells will vote for either of the candidate in a couple of days, sources added.