Congress Likely to Take DMK's Rajya Sabha Offer to Reconcile with Dissenters

In its attempt to reconcile with the G-23 leaders, who had shot a letter seeking wide-ranging organisational changes in the party, the Congress may take its ally DMK’s offer for a Rajya Sabha seat in Tamil Nadu and get one of its dissenters elected.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi is working on the final candidates for the Rajya Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, The Times of India reported.

The DMK recently offered Congress a seat in the Upper House as part of an understanding the two parties had reached ahead of the Tamil Nadu assembly elections. On the other hand, in Maharashtra, Congress will be able to fill the vacancy caused by the death of its MP Rajiv Satav.

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The opportunity to elect its leaders to the Rajya Sabha seats can be dear to the Congress as it may assuage the resentment within the party over its leadership.

For the one seat in Tamil Nadu, it’s a political contest between senior leaders of the Congress like former Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and its youth, the report said.

Meanwhile, Mukul Wasnik, Rajiv Shukla and Rajni Patil are the top candidate choices for Maharashtra. All the three leaders are Rajya Sabha veterans and Wasnik is one of the G-23 signatories.

On Saturday it was reported that Congress stalwart Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury may be replaced as the leader of Lok Sabha by party president Sonia Gandhi, just two weeks prior to the monsoon session of the Parliament. It can be seen as an attempt to cozy up with the Trinamool Congress for strengthening the Opposition.

In West Bengal, the Congress and the Left Front had fought the assembly elections together, but drew a blank as only one seat was secured by their ally ISF, the Abbas Siddiqui-led Indian Secular Front party from the Sanjukta Morcha. However, throughout the poll phase, the Congress leadership didn’t directly hit out at TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee.

By replacing Chowdhury, Congress is reportedly expecting to build better ties with Banerjee and the TMC at the ground level and simultaneously take on the Bengal Governor, Jagdeep Dhankar.

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