Ahead of the oncoming Rajya Sabha elections that are going to take place on the 27th February, the Congress party is getting ready to set forth ten seats. The latest news here is that the chairperson of Congress Parliamentary party, Sonia Gandhi has contemplated taking the Rajya Sabha route from Himachal Pradesh. Other nominees in the challenge are Congress treasurer Ajay Maken, general secretary Bhanwar Jitendra Singh and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the senior advocate. Whatever, February 15 is the target date for filing nomination.
With 3 seats in Karnataka, 2 in Telangana, and one in Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan respectively, the Congress is always expecting the best about achieving Rajya Sabha seats from several states. Kamal Nath, the former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh is looking for a seat in his state. Whereas, Dr Singhvi may represent his home state Rajasthan and a seat in Telangana might be occupied by Maken.
In such circumstances, the competition is at a high level, where Congress has 44 MLAs in Maharashtra and it needs 42 to win a seat. In the midst of speculations arising that Congress Bandra East MLA Zeeshan Siddhique was going to resign from the party, he would be joining Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party. As per political insiders, the seat might be occupied by either the former Governor of RBI, Raghuram Rajan or Praveen Chakraborthy, the chief of Professional Congress.