Rajya Sabha polls: Congress names 12 candidates; Shiv Sena fields Priyanka Chaturvedi from Maharashtra

New Delhi: The Congress party on Thursday declared 12 candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls, including party general secretary KC Venugopal, Deepender Hooda and senior Supreme Court advocate KTS Tulsi. The Congress named Digvijaya Singh and Phool Singh Baraiya as candidates from Madhya Pradesh where a keen contest would take place in one out of three seats as the BJP has also announced two candidates - Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sumer Singh Solanki.

The Congress and the BJP, given their respective strength in the Assembly, can ensure an easy win for their one candidate, while a contest is on cards on the third seat.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi first approved the candidature of nine candidates for the March 26 Rajya Sabha polls, a party statement said.

Apart from Singh and Baraiya from Madhya Pradesh, the Congress named Tulsi and Phulo Devi Netam from Chhattisgarh, Shahzada Anwar from Jharkhand, Rajiv Satav from Maharashtra, Venugopal and Neeraj Dangi from Rajasthan and Kennedy Cornelius Khyriem from Meghalaya.

Later, the party issued another list of three more candidates - Hooda from Haryana, and Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki from Gujarat. 

Congress party, which came to power in December 2018, has a total of 107 MLAs in the house of 200 and BJP has 72 MLAs. 

Keshava Rao and Suresh Reddy named TRS nominees for RS polls

The ruling TRS in Telangana on Thursday announced incumbent K Keshava Rao and senior leader K R Suresh Reddy as its nominees in the biennial election to fill two vacancies in Rajya Sabha from the state. TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao finalised the candidatures of Keshava Rao and Suresh Reddy and they will submit their nominations on Friday, TRS sources said.

The TRS is sure to bag the two seats as it enjoys a massive strength of 101 in the 120-member Assembly. Both Keshava Rao and Suresh Reddy had been senior Congress leaders before joining the TRS.

While Keshava Rao had served as president of Congress in unified Andhra Pradesh, Suresh Reddy was Legislative Assembly Speaker. The election to fill the two vacancies is necessitated as the term of KVP Ramachandra Rao (Congress) and Garikapati Mohan Rao (BJP) would come to an end on April 9.

Keshava Rao has been allotted to Andhra Pradesh as per the Andhra Pradesh Re-organisation Act though he belongs to Telangana. His current term would also come to an end on April 9

Shiv Sena nominates Priyanka Chaturvedi for RS polls

Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena on Thursday Nominated its deputy leader Priyanka Chaturvedi as the party's candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls from Maharashtra, a party leader said.

Chaturvedi had quit the Congress and joined the Shiv Sena in April 2019 as she was upset with Congress's decision to reinstate the party workers, who had allegedly misbehaved with her.
She was made the deputy leader of the Sena.

"Chaturvedi is the party's nominee for the Rajya Sabha election," a Shiv Sena leader confirmed. She will file her nomination on Friday.

The election for the seven Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra will be held on March 26. NCP chief Sharad Pawar had filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha election on Wednesday.

Besides Pawar's, the Rajya Sabha terms of Union minister Ramdas Athawale, Congress' Hussain Dalwai, Sena's Rajkumar Dhoot, BJP's Amar Sable, BJP-backed Independent Sanjay Kakade and NCP's Majeed Memon will end on April 2.

Congress general secretary in-charge of Gujarat Rajeev Satav is likely to be Congress's candidate for the Rajya Sabha election from Maharashtra. Ruling alliance members Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP can comfortably win a seat each, as a single candidate needs 37 votes.