New Delhi:Ahead of the February 27 polls for 56 Rajya Sabha seats from 15 states, jostling for a berth in the upper house of Parliament has started within the Congress.
According to party insiders, the Congress is in a position to win around 9 seats, including 3 from Karnataka, 2 from Telangana, and one each from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra due to the grand old party’s numerical strength in the respective assemblies.
According to party insiders, over a dozen senior leaders are in line for these 9 Rajya Sabha seats, including AICC Treasurer Ajay Maken, national media head Pawan Khera, sitting MPs and CWC members Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Syed Naseer Hussain, head of All India Professional Congress Praveen Chakravarty, CWC member Jitendra Singh, spokesperson Gourav Vallabh, AICC functionary K Raju, Lok Sabha member Pratibha Singh and former deputy chief minister Chhattisgarh TS Singh Deo.
Further, there is speculation within the party that former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, who has been critical of the Modi government’s economic policies, may be sent to the upper house of Parliament by the Congress. Maken, who was recently given the key post of AICC Treasurer, had been nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2022 from Haryana also but had lost by one vote to BJP-backed Kartikeya Sharma.
According to party insiders, Maken, considered close to former party chief Rahul Gandhi, is most likely to get a nomination for the upper house of Parliament. Similar is the case of national media head Pawan Khera, who had missed the bus in 2022 and later remarked that perhaps something was lacking in his “Tapasya.” Khera has been consistent in attacking the Modi government and the BJP.
The case for Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the party’s warrior in many Supreme Court battles, is a strong one given the legal and political acumen and importance of the CWC member. Sitting Lok Sabha member from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh Pratibha Singh, wife of former chief minister late Virbhadra Singh, wishes to be in the Rajya Sabha so that her son and state minister Vikramaditya Singh can contest the coming Lok Sabha election from family bastion Mandi.
The term of office for 50 Rajya Sabha members from 13 states is set to conclude on April 2, while the remaining six members from two states are due to retire on April 3. The states where the Rajya Sabha polls are slated to take place include Uttar Pradesh (10), Maharashtra (6), Bihar (6), West Bengal (5), Madhya Pradesh (5), Gujarat (4), Karnataka (4), Andhra Pradesh (3), Telangana (3), Rajasthan (3), Odisha (3), Uttarakhand (1), Chhattisgarh (1), Haryana (1), and Himachal Pradesh (1).
A certain minimum number of MLAs as per a formula are required to ensure the victory of a party nominee in the Rajya Sabha polls. Out of the Rajya Sabha poll-going states, the Congress is in power in Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh, while the party recently lost polls in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. Earlier, the party had lost badly in Gujarat and had no MLAs in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.
The last date for nomination is Feb 15, and the last date for withdrawal of nomination is February 20. “Congress president will decide on the names soon,” a senior AICC functionary said.
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