Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The list of Rajya Sabha candidates by Congress has created disquiet among the party leaders with several leaders questioning the criteria of candidate selection by the party high command with some pointing out that state leaders did not get representation as the party decided to parachute candidates from other states.
The announcement of candidates for 10 Rajya Sabha seats, which the party expects to win, has disappointed the state leadership in election-bound states of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, who had repeatedly requested the top brass to ensure at least one seat be given to local leader as that will send a positive message to party workers and people.
On the 3 seats in Rajasthan – RS Surjewala (who hails from Haryana), Mukul Wasnik (who hails from Maharashtra), and Pramod Tiwari (who is from Uttar Pradesh) -all outsiders have been fielded. Similarly, on seats in Chhattisgarh – Ranjeet Ranjan (from Bihar) and Rajeev Shukla (from Uttar Pradesh) have been named as the party candidate. Ranjan and Shukla were chosen over the local leader and former Rajya Sabha MP from the state, Chhaya Verma.
Rajasthan’s Independent MLA from Sirohi Sanyam Lodha, who is close to Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, criticized the party’s decision. The party is banking on the support of 13 independents to win 3 of 4 Rajya Sabha seats in the state.
“The Congress party should tell what is the reason for not making any Congress leader/worker from Rajasthan, a candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections?” he wrote in a tweet in Hindi and tagged Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Many questioned the Congress’ minority department head and Urdu poet Imran Pratagarhi’s Rajya Sabha nomination from Maharashtra. He had joined the Congress in 2019 and unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary election from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh.
There is a long list of leaders upset with the party’s decision, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera tweeted, “Shayad meri tapasya mein kuch kami reh gayi (Maybe my penance fell short).”
Responding to Khera’s tweet, party leader and actress Nagma Morarji said: “My 18 years of penance fell short before Imran Bhai (Imran Pratapgarhi, who has been fielded from Maharashtra). Sonia Ji our Congress president, had personally committed to accommodating me in RS in 2003/04 when I joined the Congress party at her behest; we weren’t in power then. Since then it’s been 18 years since they didn’t find an opportunity Mr Imran is accommodated in RS from Maharashtra. I ask, “Am I less deserving.”
Uttar Pradesh Congress leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam went on to name senior party leaders Salman Khurshid, Tariq Anwar, and Ghulam Nabi Azad, saying their penance was of over 40 years, but they too were “martyred”.
“‘Suppression’ of talent is a ‘suicidal step’ for the party,” he said in another tweet in Hindi.
