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Gujarat Congress releases assembly list

Virtually putting an end to renewed speculation of a possible last-minute patch-up with the Rashtriya Janata Party, the Congress released the list of party candidates for all the 182 Vidhan Sabha (state assembly) seats and 16 Lok Sabha seats.

After day-long meetings between leaders of the two parties, state Congress chief C D Patel said, "Now, at this stage, there is no alliance or seat-sharing between the two parties.''

Although RJP president Shankarsinh Vaghela had announced the severing of the alliance on February 1, there were reports that efforts had been launched afresh to renew electoral ties.

Patel admitted there had been ''an opinion for partial or limited alliance." Following this, the two parties's leadership, including Patel and Chief Minister Dilip Parikh, held talks again, but could not arrive at any decision.

According to Patel, while the earlier RJP-Congress tie-up was favourable to the Congress as an effective means to check communal forces, the severance of the alliance ''at this stage and under the changed circumstances'' was also aimed in the same direction.

''We now feel that without the RJP, we will fight the communal forces better,'' Patel said.

The list of Congress candidates includes 11 Muslims, 76 from the other backward classes, 10 women and 56 from the upper castes, besides 13 from the scheduled castes and 26 from the schedules tribes.

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