Congress leader questions Digvijay`s nomination to Rajya Sabha

Indore: Congress National Secretary Sajjan Singh Verma on Tuesday questioned the Congress high command`s decision to nominate party General Secretary Digvijay Singh for the Rajya Sabha seat from Madhya Pradesh.

"As per my understanding, the party`s high command`s decision to nominate Digvijay for the Rajya Sabha seat from Madhya Pradesh is improper. He (Digvijay) has the capacity to win Lok Sabha polls from Indore, Sagar and Vidisha seats," Verma told reporters here. Describing Digvijay as an "encyclopaedia" of the Congress, the 61-year-old Congress MP from Dewas-Shajapur seat said, "when 86-years-old BJP leader LK Advani wants to contest Lok Sabha polls, then he (Digvijay) should also have adopted a similar approach". Verma said that instead of Singh, the party should have nominated youth leaders like the Congress party president Arun Yadav and All India Mahila Congress President Shobha Ojha to the Upper House of the Parliament from Madhya Pradesh. The Congress leader also strongly objected to the nomination of senior Congress leaders like Motilal Vora, Murli Deora and Madhusudan Mistry to the Rajya Sabha which is also known as the House of Elders, in view of their age. "I failed to understand the logic behind sending aged people to the Rajya Sabha. What benefit does the party get out of it," Verma said. He claimed that the average age of BJP candidates to the Rajya Sabha is less than 60 years, while that of Congress nominees is close to 70 years. Verma said that the Congress should abandon its "age-old" traditions and send young leaders to the Rajya Sabha by handing over responsibility of the party to senior leaders. "After this statement, a few Congress leaders will react that I should have raised this issue at a party forum instead of the media, but where is the party forum? I don`t see any party forum in the party," he said.