Shimla: Union Commerce and Industry Minister
Anand Sharma, whose tenure as Rajya Sabha member from Himachal
Pradesh is ending in April, may have to seek re-election from
some other state as Congress does not have the required
strength in the state assembly.
"Congress does not have the required strength in the
assembly to send Sharma to the Rajya Sabha again," state
Congress chief Kaul Singh Thakur told reporters here, adding
the party high command would decide from where to send him to
the upper house.
The poll to 15 Rajya Sabha seats, including one from HP,
is scheduled for March 26.
In the 68-member HP assembly, strength of 35 MLAs is
required for election to Rajya Sabha, whereas opposition
Congress has only 23 MLAs.
Sharma is an important leader of the party and many
states would be happy to make him its representative in the
upper house of Parliament, Thakur said.
Sources in the Congress, however, said Sharma, in all
probability, would find the route to the Rajya Sabha from
Haryana, where his family originally belongs to.
The Union Minister`s forefather hailed from Dadri in
Haryana but he was born and brought up in Shimla, where his
father was a state government officer. He plunged into student
politics from HP university and later became NSUI national
general secretary and Youth Congress president of HP.
Sharma served as Rajya Sabha member from HP in 1984-1990,
and 2004, which ends on April 2, 2010.
PTI
