New Delhi: Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi will move to the Rajya Sabha. The grand old party today (February 14) released its list of candidates for the upcoming elections to the Upper House.
Gandhi filed her nomination in Jaipur, Rajasthan, where she was accompanied by her son Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and daughter, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, along with former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and state president Govind Singh Dostara.
With her move to the Upper House from Rajasthan, Gandhi has ended her long stint as a Lok Sabha MP from Raebareli, which she represented since 2004. The five-time Lok Sabha MP first entered parliament after winning the 1999 Lok Sabha elections from the Gandhi turf of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.
In 2004, she contested and won the Lok Sabha elections from Raebareli, leaving Rahul to contest from Amethi. Rahul, held the Amethi seat until his defeat to union minister Smriti Irani in 2019.
The Amethi seat has been with the Nehru-Gandhi family since its formation in 1967, barring a few years in the 1970s, the latter half of the 1990s and in the latest stint, since 2019.
With her move to the Rajya Sabha, Gandhi has become the second member of the Nehru-Gandhi family to move to the Upper House following her mother-in-law and former prime minister Indira Gandhi, who was also a member the House from 1964 to 1967 before contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Raebareli.
With Gandhi now vacating the Raebareli seat, there is speculation that her daughter Gandhi-Vadra might contest from the old Congress bastion, which has remained with the Congress and the Nehru-Gandhi family since 1952 when Feroze Gandhi (Indira Gandhi’s husband) won from the seat.
Seven other candidates named
Along with Gandhi, the Congress also named nine other candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections. This includes sitting MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi from Himachal Pradesh, Akhilesh Prasad Singh from Bihar, Chandrakant Handore from Maharashtra, Ajay Maken, Syed Naseer Hussain, G.C. Chandrashekhar from Karnataka, Ashok Singh from Madhya Pradesh, Renuka Chowdhury and Anil Kumar Yadav from Telangana.
Singhvi is the sitting Congress MP from West Bengal, but has been fielded from Himachal Pradesh this time, where the party is in power.
Singh, the state president of the Congress in Bihar is the other sitting MP and may require the support of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Left to retain his seat.
Handore’s candidature from Maharashtra comes close on the heels of former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan leaving the party for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday. Handore is at present the working president of the state unit.
Congress treasurer Ajay Maken has been named from Karnataka, where the party is in power, alongside sitting Rajya Sabha MPs Syed Naseer Hussain and G.C. Chandrashekhar.
In Telangana, where the party is also in power, the Congress has named Renuka Chowdhury who will return to the house if elected after a gap of six years, along with Telangana youth Congress president Anil Kumar Yadav.
In Madhya Pradesh, where there was speculation of former chief minister Kamal Nath of going to the Upper House, the party has named Ashok Singh, vice president of the Congress’ state unit.
A total of 56 members of Rajya Sabha from 15 states are retiring in April and the election to the seats will be held on February 27. The last date for filing nominations is February 15.