New Delhi: Days after a dissent letter by 23 veterans created a flutter in the Congress, speculation over the future role of Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad has begun within the party circles.
Azad's fifth Rajya Sabha term will end on February 15, 2021 and it would be almost impossible for party managers to get him re-elected to the upper house of Parliament.
There may be some hope in Puducherry, where the seat represented by AIADMK'S N Gokulkrishnan would fall vacant in October 2021 but that option would be available only if the Congress is able to return to power in May next year.
This effectively means Azad will have to wait till the next round of Rajya Sabha polls in March 2022 and may get a chance to re-enter the upper house only if a suitable vacancy exists. The chances appear to be dim, said the sources.
In the Rajya Sabha, Azad represents the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, which was converted into a Union Territory along with Ladakh in 2019.
Though PM Modi recently clarified that assembly elections in UT Jammu and Kashmir will take place in the future, this would be possible only after the delimitation of constituencies has been completed by March 2021.
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Interestingly, there was a lot of suspense over Azad's re-election to the Rajya Sabha in 2015 when the wily politician managed to get the support of National Conference lawmakers.
With UT J&K out of contention, it would be next to impossible for the Congress managers to get him re-elected from any other state.
At present the Congress rules in Punjab, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh from where representatives have been elected to the Rajya Sabha.
The other states where the Congress is in opposition but has a significant number of lawmakers are Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat but here too representatives to the upper house have been elected.
There is no hope either from Maharashtra where the Congress is part of the ruling Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition as Rajya Sabha polls are over in the western state.
Though there is no apparent link between the ongoing speculation over Azad's return to the upper house and the fact that his name prominently figured in the list of dissenters, the going may not be easy for the wily politician once the Rajya Sabha membership and the LoP status is gone after February next year, party insiders said.
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Azad then will be left with the post of AICC general secretary in charge of Haryana that he got in 2019. Before that, Azad was made AICC in charge of Uttar Pradesh in 2016 to revive the party in a politically crucial state ahead of the 2017 assembly polls. Under his charge, the Congress decided to join hands with the Samajwadi Party, a move which turned out to be a disaster, recall party strategists.
Recently, former UP Congress chief Nirmal Khatri flagged the party's poor show in the 2017 polls as he slammed Azad over the dissent letter. Another UP unit leader Naseeb Pathan demanded Azad’s ouster over the issue.
Party insiders said it may not be easy for Azad to continue to throw his weight behind the group demanding internal elections right from the post of Congress president down to the district level.
For now both Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi and former chief Rahul Gandhi, who may be back in the saddle, have assured Azad that the issues raised by him would be addressed.
But any minor AICC reshuffle in the near future may see the charge of Haryana going to a Sonia-Rahul loyalist just as Rahul's close aide Ajay Maken was suddenly posted as AICC in charge of Rajasthan replacing Avinash Pandey, under whose charge the party faced dissent of another kind in July.
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Another issue being debated in the party is who will replace Azad as Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.
Technically, the position should go to Anand Sharma, who has been playing the role of Azad's deputy for long and would be a natural claimant to the key parliamentary post. However, the fact that Sharma too was one of the signatories to the dissent letter, may limit his chances of getting promoted, said party insiders. Sharma's Rajya Sabha term expires in April 2022.
While party managers are not willing to stick their neck out over the issue, the name of senior Karnataka leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who was elected to the upper house this year and will serve as a member till 2026, has been discussed informally within the party circles.
The fact that the name of Kharge, a Sonia loyalist, did not figure in the list of dissenters, might just add some weight to the candidature of the Dalit leader, who has been a nine time MLA and two-term Lok Sabha member besides being a former UPA minister.
