New Delhi: Politics is heating up between the BJP and the opposition parties over June 10 Rajya Sabha elections with nominations for the contest set to close this month. As many as 57 Rajya Sabha seats, across 15 states, will go to polls on June 10. The BJP, which rules in 18 states, and has 95 seats in the Rajya Sabha, has an advantage but the Congress, as well as some regional players too, are exerting themselves to get their nominees elected to the upper house of Parliament.
In between, the seeds of political realignments are also being sown as the regional parties aspire for a greater national role. Among the key BJP faces whose terms are ending are, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. However, it will be easy for the ruling party to get them re-elected.
The major focus is on Uttar Pradesh where 11 RS seats will have polls. The break up is BJP 5, SP 3, BSP 2 and Congress 1. As both Congress and BSP have been marginalised in the recent assembly polls in UP, the main contest is going to be between the BJP and SP. Out of the 11, the BJP may get 7 seats, the SP may get 3 while there may be a fight for 1 seat. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has already decided to back former Congress leader Kapil Sibal, who is contesting as an independent candidate from UP. Akhilesh may also back RLD leader Jayant Chaudhary as an RS candidate. The BSP won’t be able to re-elect party veteran SC Mishra who is a close aide of party chief Mayawati.
In Bihar, 5 RS seats will go to the polls. Out of 5, BJP had 2, JD-U 2 and RJD 1. But the JD-U’s tally came down in the 2020 assembly polls which means it will get only 1 seat this time. So far, chief minister Nitish Kumar has not announced support for party leader and Union minister RCP Singh, who has reportedly come close to the BJP.
In normal circumstances, RCP Singh would have got nominated for a second term but his problems with JD-U chief Rajiv Ranjan Singh may affect his chances this time. Moreover, ties between Nitish Kumar and BJP have not been smooth of late. Of the 2 seats that RJD had, 1 is most likely to go to Misa Bharti, daughter of party founder Lalu Prasad. The RJD is yet to decide on the second seat from its quota as ally Congress is eying that berth.
In Jharkhand, Congress wants 1 seat from Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s JMM party quota besides the 1 seat that it will get on its own. The issue has caused tension in the ruling alliance and chief minister Soren might meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi soon to resolve the matter. Jharkhand Congress leaders will hold a meeting on May 26 in Delhi in which all the senior leaders would be present. The names of senior leaders like Subodh Kant Sahay, Furkan Ansari, Ajoy Kumar and Rajesh Thakur are floating for RS nominations from Congress.
At present, Congress has 29 seats in the 245-member Rajya Sabha. The party hopes to get 3 seats from Rajasthan, 2 from Chhattisgarh and 1 seat each in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana on its own. In Tamil Nadu, the DMK has agreed to give 1 seat from its quota to Congress. The grand old party hopes to get 1 seat in Maharashtra, where it shares power with Shiv Sena and NCP.
The tenure of many Congress veterans like former finance minister P Chidambaram, former environment minister Jairam Ramesh and former I&B minister Ambika Soni are set to end. Ramesh may be back from Karnataka while Chidambaram may be re-elected from Maharashtra, said sources.
Veterans like Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Digvijay Singh, Kumari Selja, and Pramod Tewari are also Rajya Sabha hopefuls. Among the younger lot, Ajay Maken, Jitendra Singh, Rajiv Shukla, Manish Chatrath and Randeep Surjewala are in queue for a Rajya Sabha nomination. The top leadership of both BJP and Congress are working on finalising the nominees soon.
