EXCLUSIVE
The SNP have handed a young primary school teacher the most formidable challenge facing any candidate in next year's Scottish general election.
They will shortly announce formally that Kaukab Stewart, 30, will attempt to topple Donald Dewar at Glasgow Anniesland.
Mrs Stewart, who lives in Edinburgh with her Scots-born husband, is a Muslim who was born in Africa and brought up in England, and she is regarded as one of the Nationalists' brightest young prospects.
But she will probably never face a tougher battle than her bid to remove Mr Dewar by overcoming the huge 15,154 majority he amassed in last year's Westminster election.
A party official said last night: ''She will be a super candidate and she has been chosen partly be-cause she makes such an impressive alternative to Mr Dewar. She is everything he is not.''
Mrs Stewart, a senior teacher, was a member of the Scottish Consultative Committee on the Curriculum in 1993-94, and is a member of Scots Asians for Independence. She is a confidante of Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP's candidate for Govan, which the Nationalists hope to win in the aftermath of the Sarwar affair.
Mrs Stewart recently joined Ms Sturgeon's education policy development team. She is an EIS activist who teaches at Craigmillar Primary in Edinburgh.
Mrs Stewart is the SNP's sole nominee for the Anniesland seat and her formal adoption will be a formality, a party source indicated.
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