Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Leaders from G23 group Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma, who were touted as probables to get a Rajya Sabha birth, were missing from the list of 10 candidates announced by the party Sunday for the upper house while senior party leaders Jairam Ramesh and P Chidambaram, got a renomination.
Ramesh has been fielded from Karnataka while Chidambaram from Tamil Nadu.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s close aide and media department head RS Surjewala, general secretary Ajay Maken and minority department chief Imran Pratapgarhi have also been nominated for the Rajya Sabha by the Congress. Surjewala, who hails from Haryana and is incharge of Karnataka, is fielded from Rajasthan while Maken from Haryana and Pratagarhi from Maharashtra.
Among the G23 ginger group, who wrote to party chief Sonia Gandhi over organisational revamp, Mukul Wasnik and Vivek Tanka have been named from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh respectively.
Former Congress MP and party’s Brahmin face in Uttar Pradesh, Pramod Tiwari has been fielded from Rajasthan. The party hopes to win 3 of 4 seats in Rajasthan. None of the leaders fielded from the Rajasthan belong to the state.
In Chhattisgarh, ruling out the demand of local leadership that atleast one of two seats be given to state leader, the party named Gandhi family close aide and incharge for Himachal Pradesh, Rajeev Shukla, and another ticket to former MP from Bihar Ranjeet Ranjan.
The fight on the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Jharkhand continues between the coalition partners Congress and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. Sources said that both the parties lay claim to the seat. Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has Saturday met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in the national capital seeking support for the JMM candidate.
Elections on 55 vacancies in the Rajya Sabha from 15 states are scheduled to be held on June 10 and the last date for filing nominations is May 31. Seven Congress members — Chidambaram (Maharashtra), Ramesh (Karnataka), Kapil Sibal (Uttar Pradesh), Chhaya Verma (Chhattisgarh), Ambika Soni (Punjab), Vivek Tankha (Madhya Pradesh) and Pradeep Tamta (Uttarakhand) will be completing their terms.
