11.4.09

Jai Ho ! Tytler , Sajjan Kumar get the boot



Almost 25 years after the horrific anti-Sikh riots, a shoe flung at home minister P Chidambaram to protest against the accused going unpunished has claimed the political careers of two heavyweights—Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar—with the Congress on Thursday withdrawing their candidatures from the Delhi North-East and South constituencies. With Sikh groups up in arms in Delhi and Punjab and fears of an adverse fallout for its prospects rising in the Congress, the leadership seized on the designated CBI court deferring a verdict on the agency’s clean chit to Tytler in the riots case to get rid of what had become an albatross around its neck. While Tytler had been in the eye of the storm, the Congress decided to get rid of Sajjan Kumar as well in one blow, not least because the cases against the Jat strongman are stronger. Sparing Kumar would not have helped the objective of assuaging Sikh sentiments in Punjab where the party is hopeful of snatching seats from the Akalis. The party leadership saw the shoethrowing incident as having opened the Congress to attacks from the BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) which claimed that the UPA lead player was being insensitive to Sikh sentiments. A quick calculation also led the party to feel that the fallout in the capital could also be contained. It was on Tuesday that journalist Jarnail Singh lobbed his shoe past Chidambaram at the Congress headquarters and within the space of three days, both Tytler and Kumar were on the mat. Tytler set the ball in motion by calling a press conference on Thursday evening at which he virtually announced he was quitting the poll arena. He said he was not “pursuing’’ his ticket and it was up to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to take a call.

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