The tenure of two current Rajya Sabha MPs, Prem Chand Gupta and Parimal Nathwani, will be ending on 9 April.
New Delhi: Congress leader and former Union Minister of Home (State) R.P.N. Singh and former Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Shibu Soren, are the front-runners for the two Rajya Sabha seats that will fall vacant in April from Jharkhand.
The tenure of two current Rajya Sabha MPs, Prem Chand Gupta and Parimal Nathwani, will be ending on 9 April. Singh, who is the state in-charge of Jharkhand, is likely to be rewarded for the “right” ticket selection and withstanding the pressure from senior state leaders while finalising candidates for the Assembly polls. The Congress, which contested on 31 seats, won on 16 seats. After Singh’s close friend and state Congress chief Ajoy Kumar resigned from his post in August 2019 following a large-scale protest against him by senior state leaders, it was Singh who steered the party’s boat in the run-up to the Assembly elections that were held just four months later. Informed sources said that Singh, who was appointed the state in-charge in July 2017, is the one who is now handling the entire working of the party in the state and has assumed the role of the points-man for the Congress in Jharkhand.
“While Subodh Kant Sahai and Furkan Ansari, too, are pushing their names on the basis of their seniority, the scale is tipped in favour of Singh as he has given results in the state. Singh enjoys proximity to both the Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi camps and is unlikely to face any opposition from the multiple camps within the Congress. The party, too, wants to give a message that it will reward the achievers,” a party source said. Both Sahai and Ansari have been Lok Sabha MP in the past. On the other hand, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren is likely to nominate his father and former Chief Minister Shibu Soren to the other seat for the Rajya Sabha. Shibu Soren, 76, now stays away from active politics due to age-related health issues. “Guruji (as Shibu Soren is called by his party workers) is the biggest leader of Jharkhand and it will be a great gesture if he is sent to the Rajya Sabha. He has done a lot for the party and he deserves this,” a party leader said. However, a section within the party is also pushing for nominating Basant Soren, Hemant Soren’s younger brother, to the Rajya Sabha so that he could be groomed for the future. Hemant Soren was the party’s official candidate for the 2016 Rajya Sabha seat, but he was defeated by BJP’s Mahesh Poddar. He is president of the party’s youth wing, Jharkhand Chatra Yuva Morcha. His wife Sita Soren is the party MLA from Jama. “Unlike in other parties, we will not have any dispute between our leaders when it comes to deciding who should be sent to Rajya Sabha. Guruji is our guardian, Basant Soren is the future,” the party leader said.