NEW DELHI: The Congress on Wednesday nominated senior party leader and Supreme Court lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi to contest the Rajya Sabha bypoll from Telangana. The by-election, which is scheduled on September 3, was necessitated by the resignation of former BRS MP K Keshava Rao, who joined the Congress recently. Singhvi’s win may be a foregone conclusion with the Congress enjoying a clear majority in the Telangana assembly, with 64 out of 119 seats. If Singhvi wins, the number of Congress MPs in Rajya Sabha will go up to 27. The Congress tally was reduced to 26 from 28 MPs after KC Venugopal and Deepender Hooda resigned from the Upper House to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The party will be able to keep the Leader of the Opposition post in Rajya Sabha as the minimum requirement for any party to hold the post is to have at least 25 members.After the party announced his candidature, Singhvi expressed his gratitude to the leadership. “My sincere gratitude to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia ji, Rahul ji, Priyanka ji, and to all senior leadership for the trust and faith reposed in me,” he wrote in an X post. Singhvi lost the Rajya Sabha election from Himachal Pradesh in February this year after BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan won the election through draw of lots after both the candidates secured 34 votes each. The contest for the lone Rajya Sabha seat in the state also brought out the fissures in the party with least six Congress MLAs cross-voting. Subsequent developments have plunged the Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh into a political crisis. However, the leadership’s timely intervention saved it from losing its sole state in the northern belt to the BJP.
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