Following Congress’ dismal performance in the recent assembly elections, not only are the party’s chances of sending MPs to Rajya Sabha dwindling, but selecting candidates to replace senior leaders set to retire from the Upper House this year may also be difficult. A senior Congress leader told Hindustan Times that the party chief Sonia Gandhi will take a call on selection of candidates.
While one seat is set to fall vacant with the retirement of former defence minister AK Antony in Kerala, Rajasthan will have two vacant seats next month.
Intense competition has already started over the lone vacant seat in Kerala. The senior leader said that the party high command is in favour of fielding Sreenivasan Krishnan – who is considered a loyalist of party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and was a former OSD (officer on special duty) of Kerala chief minister K Karunakaran. However, the state unit is resisting.
Meanwhile, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee Chief K Sudhakaran is trying to pitch for M Liju, who hails from Sudhakaran’s area.
While some leaders suspect that the G-23 meeting may see this as an opportunity to push a national-level candidate, a young leader in Kerala said it would nearly be impossible to have a non-Malayali candidate for this seat. “There is already intense lobbying going on. One section of the Congress thinks that KV Thomas, a prominent Catholic leader, would be the appropriate choice to replace AK Antony,” he said.
In Punjab, veteran leaders Ambika Soni and former state unit chief Pratap Singh Bajwa’s terms are set to get over this year. The two leaders will, however, not be able to retain their seats in the wake of the party’s poor performance in the state elections.
Similarly, party’s Rajya Sabha deputy leader Anand Sharma, who is also a prominent face of the G23 grouping, is slated to retire from Himachal Pradesh. Sharma’s seat is set to go to the BJP, which has managed to retain power in the state. A decision on accommodating Sharma, especially amid the dissent by party veterans, is yet to be taken, the senior leader said.
Congress’s chief whip Jairam Ramesh, considered close to both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, is set to retire from his Karnataka seat in June. He too will not be able to retain the seat since the party is out of power in the state.
A meeting of the Congress’s ‘Group of 23’ leaders on March 16 said the only way forward for the grand old party is to adopt a model of collective and inclusive leadership and decision making at all levels.
In a statement, the G-23 leaders, who met at the residence of former Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, urged the Congress leadership to initiate talks with like-minded forces to create a way for a credible alternative to the ruling BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
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