New Delhi: Congress Working Committee member and party’s top legal troubleshooter Abhishek Manu Singhvi is set to be back in the Rajya Sabha from party-ruled Telangana. Singhvi, who has served three terms in the Upper House of Parliament, lost the April Rajya Sabha election from Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh in a draw of lots, which was necessitated after six party MLAs rebelled and voted against the veteran lawyer. As a result, BJP’s Harsh Mahajan won the RS poll, which was seen as a major embarrassment for the ruling party.
According to party insiders, despite the sabotage by the six rebel MLAs, who were expelled by the party, the Congress high command still wanted Singhvi to be in the Rajya Sabha and worked out a plan to bring him in from the southern state of Telangana.
Chief Minister Revanth Reddy recently worked behind the scenes and inducted BRS senior leader and Rajya Sabha member Keshava Rao into the Congress in the presence of party chief and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, along with deputy chief minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and AICC in-charge of state Deepa Dasmunshi.
As per the understanding, soon after he joined the Congress, Keshava Rao resigned from the Rajya Sabha causing a vacant seat in the Upper House, which can now be used to send Abhishek Singhvi to the Rajya Sabha.
In return, Rao has been made an advisor of public administration with a Cabinet minister’s rank to the Telangana government by the Chief Minister to compensate the ex-BRS veteran, who was with the Congress, before the state was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2013.
“The decision on the Rajya Sabha nomination will be made by the high command but I can say that Abhishek Manu Singhvi is an asset to the party both inside and outside the House. He is a sharp legal brain and a strong spokesperson of the party,” senior Telangana Congress leader Madhu Goud Yaskhi told ETV Bharat.
Since coming to power the Congress has been on a spree of taking in BRS leaders and recently inducted six of their MLCs to dent the former ruling party. Besides one seat in Telangana, the Congress can win one seat each in Haryana vacated by Deepender Hooda now in the Lok Sabha and in Rajasthan vacated by KC Venugopal, who is in the Lok Sabha.
Besides Singhvi, Andhra Pradesh unit chief YSR Sharmila is also being considered for a nomination from neighbouring Karnataka, said party insiders.
Sharmila, who lost the Lok Sabha polls from Kadapa, the traditional seat of his father and former chief minister late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, has met both Revanth Reddy and Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shiv Kumar to discuss her prospects. She was inducted into the Congress before the assembly elections to steer the party in Andhra Pradesh and counter his brother and YSRCP chief Jaganmohan Reddy, who suffered poll losses. Sharmila had been inducted after she met both former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, who campaigned for her in Kadapa.
Read more: Congress's Abhishek Manu Singhvi Challenges RS Election Results in Himachal Pradesh High Court
