Congress trying to deal with RS poll woes

In a normal course, the Rajya Sabha nominees in Rajasthan and Haryana would have won comfortably, given that Congress has the minimum number of MLAs required in either state to get its candidates elected to the Rajya Sabha, writes Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi:The Congress’ woes related to the June 10 Rajya Sabha polls seem to be growing. Even as the party was grappling with dissent over fielding ‘outsiders’ from 3 seats in Rajasthan and from 1 seat each in Haryana and Maharashtra, the Congress now faces a threat that its lawmakers in Rajasthan and Haryana may be poached by the BJP, according to sources.

The ‘outsider’ charge refers to Randeep Surjewala, Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari who are Rajya Sabha nominees from Rajasthan but don’t belong to the state. Wasnik belongs to Maharashtra while Tiwari is from Uttar Pradesh. Surjewala belongs to neighbouring Haryana, where the party has fielded Delhi-based Ajay Maken. For the sole seat available to the Congress in Maharashtra, the party has fielded Imran Pratapgarhi, who is a poet from Uttar Pradesh and currently in charge of the AICC minorities department.

Maharashtra Congress general secretary Ashish Deshmukh resigned to protest Pratapgarhi’s nomination while party leader Nagma Morarji had tweeted to express her displeasure over the move. Party’s national spokesperson Pawan Khera too had expressed unease as he felt left out in the nominations but later amended his views saying that serving the party and its ideology was far more important for the millions of workers like him.

In a normal course, the Rajya Sabha nominees in Rajasthan and Haryana would have won comfortably, given that Congress has the minimum number of MLAs required in either state to get its candidates elected to the Rajya Sabha. However, the entry of two BJP-backed media owners, Subhash Chandra in Rajasthan and Kartikeya Sharma in Haryana, may impact the prospects of one Congress nominee in Rajasthan and the sole one in Haryana.

Sharma, is the son of former Congress leader Venod Sharma and a son in law of party leader Kuldeep Sharma. Interestingly, both Venod and Kuldeep are close to Leader of the Opposition in the Haryana Assembly Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who recently chaired a meeting of party MLAs to ensure Maken’s victory. Haryana Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, who is miffed over being left out in the recently revamped state team, skipped Hooda’s strategy meet, indicating a rift in the state unit.

Interestingly, Surjewala had supported Bishnoi saying he would have been a good state unit chief and urged the high command to consider accommodating him suitably. That kind of explains why Surjewala had to be fielded from Rajasthan instead of his home state Haryana. Kartikey, who is backed by the lawmakers of ruling BJP and JJP, needs the support of a few more votes and if some of the Congress MLAs shift loyalties and cross vote, he should be in.

This prospect has worried the Congress which is now planning to shift its Haryana lawmakers to party-ruled Chhattisgarh till the Rajya Sabha polls on June 10. Earlier, there were plans to shift the Haryana MLAs to a hotel in Udaipur, along with the Rajasthan lawmakers, but there was a change of strategy on Thursday, said the sources. The worry for the Congress managers is the same in Rajasthan, where the BJP has been trying to lure its lawmakers in the past and could do so again to ensure the victory of Chandra.

Read: Discontent brews in Cong after party announces nominees for RS polls