STALWARTS GIVE 15th LOK SABHA A MISS

The 15th Lok Sabha will miss some of the well known stalwarts. The list includes former Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee,  Chandra Shekar and V P Singh would not be seen in the polls. Mr. Vajpayee is not contesting due to ill health while the other two are dead. The next Lok Sabha would also miss veteran parliamentarian Somnath Chatterjee who refused to contest polls after he was expelled from his party CPI(M) following his refusal to quit the office of the Speaker during the no confidence motion against the government.

 

                        Mr. Chatterjee and Mr.Vajpayee are ten-term veterans of the people’s house. Mr. Vajpaypee has not lost even a single Lok Sabha election that he contested. Mr. Chatterjee has won all but one. He lost once to Ms. Mamatha Banerjee in the Jadavpur constituency in 1984.  Missing along with them would be A BA Ghani Khan Choudary of the INC. Mr. Choudary is an eight-term veteran like Mr. Chandra Shekar. This Lok Sabha is also likely to miss Mr.George Fernandes. Mr. Fernandes might contest the polls despite being in ill health. He was denied a ticket by his party following this poor health. However it is widely reported that the denial of ticket was due to his failed relations with some of this party colleagues namely Sharad Yadav and Nithish Kumar. Further even if Mr. Fernandes contests polls he is not expected to win.

Another notable veteran to give the Lok Sabha a miss would be Mr. P M Sayeed. Many might not remember him. He is an eight time MP from Lakshwadeep. Although he lost the last election there, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha and was made the Power Minister in the UPA government, a post that he held until his death in Soeul in 2005. P M Sayeed was also the Deputy Speaker in the 13th Lok Sabha. Other veterans to miss the bus would be Janatha Dal President  and former Chief Minister of Karnataka Mr. Bommai and former Delhi Chief Minister Mr. Sahib Singh Verma. Both are dead. Mr. Verma is well known as the only loyal supporter of Mr. Advani during the Jinnah episode.