Gandhis pack a loyalist punch; no Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma or Kumari Selja in Congress RS choice

The Gandhis-led Congress on Sunday fielded three AICC general secretaries for the Rajya Sabha polls — Ajay Maken, Randeep Surjewala and Mukul Wasnik. But it denied tickets to veterans and two top Congress change-seekers, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma.

Interestingly, the party has also denied nomination to Haryana’s Dalit-woman face Kumari Selja, who was recently removed as PCC chief in order to placate senior leader BS Hooda. The move signals that the Gandhis are blessing loyalists, including Rajiv Shukla from Chhattisgarh.

All three (winnable) seats from Congress-ruled Rajasthan have been given to ‘outsiders’ — Surjewala, Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tewari — despite the fact that the state is election-bound and has compulsions to accommodate local leaders. Same thing happened with the second Congress-ruled and poll-bound state Chhattisgarh, where both nominations went to ‘outsiders’ — Shuka (UP) and Ranjeet Ranjan (Bihar) Two Team Rahul members — Maken and Surjewala, who have lost from their respective home pitches in Delhi and Haryana, more than once in recent elections — have been nominated from Haryana and Rajasthan, respectively.


Maharashtra’s lone Congress seat has been given to UP’s Imran Pratapgarhi. P Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh have been nominated from home states TN and Karnataka, respectively. Vivek Tankha, although achange seeker, has got a re-nomination from home turf MP, apparently due to Digvijaya Singh’s backing.