The former president of Congress is the top candidate for the Rajya Sabha seat from Himachal Pradesh that will become available after the tenure of BJP chief J P Nadda ends in April.
Top leaders of Congress gathered at the residence of party chief Mallikarjun Kharge to finalize seat-sharing arrangements with various parties of the INDIA bloc. Sources revealed that the Congress president also discussed potential candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections with parliamentary party chief Sonia Gandhi. It is rumored that Gandhi and party treasurer Ajay Maken are likely candidates, sources said.
The former Congress president is the frontrunner for the Rajya Sabha seat from Himachal Pradesh that will become vacant after BJP chief JP Nadda’s tenure ends this April. Her name is also being considered for a seat in Rajasthan as the tenure of former prime minister Manmohan Singh is coming to an end. The Congress has not yet announced any candidates for the biennial elections for 56 seats from 15 states. The deadline for filing nominations is February 15 and the elections will be held on February 27.
Gandhi may be nominated by the party for the single seat from Himachal Pradesh as she is unlikely to contest the Lok Sabha polls this time. Gandhi had announced during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls that it was the last time she would be contesting in general elections.
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Other attendees at Kharge’s residence included AICC general secretary K C Venugopal, Maken, Mukul Wasnik, who is the convener of the party’s alliance committee, and Salman Khurshid. The Congress is finalizing seat-sharing talks with other like-minded parties including DMK in Tamil Nadu, JMM in Jharkhand, RJD in Bihar, and NCP and Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.
In addition, sources said that the Congress is in the final stages of seat-sharing negotiations with the National Conference, whose leader Farooq Abdullah has been summoned for questioning by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case related to the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA). The Enforcement Directorate has issued a fresh summons to Abdullah, asking him to testify at the agency’s office in Srinagar on Tuesday.
Congress leaders alleged that this was being done to pressure Abdullah’s party to not have a seat-sharing arrangement with the Congress. Congress sources also claim that Ashok Chavan, who resigned from the party on Monday, had met with Congress chief Kharge last week and conveyed that there is “tremendous pressure” on him from investigative agencies to defect.
The Congress needs to nominate candidates for election to Rajya Sabha seats from the states of Karnataka, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra. Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan Assembly Tika Ram Jully urged the high command to announce Sonia Gandhi’s candidacy from Rajasthan.
“We have requested the national president and the high command to nominate Sonia Gandhi to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan. If she is elected from here, all the Congress workers from the state will be very happy,” the Congress leader said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA staff and is published from PTI)