Author: Agencies
Publication: The Times of India
Date: November 10, 2008
In a surprise decision, the Congress has decided
to team up with the Samajwadi Party to support Mohammad Adeeb Khan's candidature
for a Rajya Sabha berth from Uttar Pradesh in the coming biennial elections
to the Upper House.
The decision comes within days of Khan's strongly-worded
letter to the Congress chief where he announced his decision to quit the party
and questioned the Congress's commitment to "secularism" by launching
a full-scale attack on national security advisor M K Narayanan.
Khan's success may appear to be a trade-off
between Congress and SP which had asked the former to support the candidature
of its controversial leader in Mumbai, Abu Azmi. But it comes at the expense
of strong contenders from Congress like Salman Khursheed and Pramod Tiwari
and appear to reflect the success of SP's manoeuvres.
