Almost a dozen Congress aspirants for two Rajya Sabha seats

Two vacancies to the Rajya Sabha have triggered a ‘not so secret’ positioning by some Congress aspirants to get into Parliament’s Upper House. Many in the AICC feel the leadership’s choice of candidates will indicate whether its priority would be to reward ‘Team Rahul/Priyanka’ members or attempt peace with change seekers ahead of Rahul Gandhi's re-elevation as party president, since there are aspirants from both camps.

The Congress will be able to get its RS candidate elected in Maharashtra with the help of its coalition partners to fill the vacancy caused by the death of its MP Rajiv Satav. Following an understanding the DMK reached ahead of the Tamil Nadu assembly elections, Congress is also hopeful it will be able to successfully contest elections to one of the two Rajya Sabha seats which fell vacant due to resignations of two AIADMK Rajya Sabha members elected to the assembly.

Even before the EC could notify the RS polls, Congress aspirants have started their moves. AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik’s name is doing the rounds for the seat from his home state, Maharashtra. There is also buzz on Ghulam Nabi Azad being considered for the Tamil Nadu seat. Azad and Wasnik, incidentally, are part of the 23 change seekers who wrote jointly to Sonia Gandhi last August, demanding internal reforms and clarity on leadership.


However, the names of a number of ‘Team Rahul/Priyanka’ members, including some who were defeated in the last Lok Sabha or assembly polls and some others, too, are doing the rounds for the two seats. They include Milind Deora, Randeep Surjewala, Sanjay Nirupam, Jitendra Singh, Avinash Pandey, Rajiv Shukla and Sachin Rao among others.

RS seats have become a precious thing for the Congress, ever since it lost power at the Centre and more and more state assemblies.