Congress RS nominees are at risk

Facing the spectre of defeat of some of its candidates in the Rajya Sabha elections, the Congress high command has got into a panic mode and has decided to move the Haryana MLAs to the safety of a Chhattisgarh resort.
The problem with the Congress distribution of tickets has been that instead of playing totally safe, it has put its own prospects at risk in a few states where the presence of Independent candidates would haunt the central leadership for a long time.
Two prominent G-23 leaders, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma have been sidelined while Kapil Sibal has secured his place in the Upper House by getting support from the Samajwadi Party. His victory is certain.
The flaw in the Congress selection is that it has chosen some nominees who not only attract hostility from the cadres but are totally disconnected with the ground realities. The choice seems to have been forced since it is being said that while deciding the 10 seats, the three Gandhis—Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka—picked up three each and the tenth nominee, Vivek Tankha from Madhya Pradesh, was selected at the insistence of MPCC president and former CM, Kamal Nath.
The decision which is sought to be explained by close associates of the Gandhis as tactical is baffling because barring Tankha, Jairam Ramesh and P. Chidambaram, the remaining seven nominees are “outsiders” in the states from where they have been fielded.
It is beyond all logic that if Mukul Wasnik was to be granted the Rajya Sabha it should have been from his home state Maharashtra and not Rajasthan and similarly Randeep Surjewala should instead of Rajasthan been the nominee from Haryana. One can understand that in the case of Surjewala, opposition by the Bhupinder Singh Hooda camp must have prompted his re-location. Imran Pratapgarhi, a new entrant in politics is the party’s candidate from Maharashtra.
It is again hard to explain why Ranjeet Ranjan has been accommodated in the Congress list from Chhattisgarh, which is the safest state for the nominees while somebody like Pramod Tewari, a senior and veteran leader, now would have to use all his experience to win from Rajasthan.
The Congress high command has scant regard for the traditions of the party and has once again ignored and overruled the formula which was in place after Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister till P.V. Narasimha Rao’s time; no defeated Lok Sabha candidates would be granted Rajya Sabha nomination under any circumstances.
In the Congress list released last week, there are nominees who have got the approval despite losing both in Parliament and Assembly polls. What kind of message is sought to be sent is something which only the Gandhis can explain.
Soon after taking over as the president, Sonia Gandhi had breached this guideline when she had granted RS tickets to Oscar Fernandes, Shivraj Patil and P.M. Sayeid after they lost. Many other deviations of a similar kind took place subsequently. She had also not observed the principle of One Man, One Post which was sacrosanct in the Congress, with the sole exception being the party president. Under her, multiple leaders held dual positions of being in the ministry as well as being in-charge of states.
In the latest instance, the biggest upsets for the Congress are likely to take place in both Haryana and Rajasthan where two media barons, Kartikeya Sharma and Subhash Goyal have respectively filed their nominations as Independent nominees. Haryana was the state from where the term, “Aya Ram Gaya Ram” came into the political lexicon and this may come true even this time. Former Union Minister Ajay Maken, who is the party nominee, may find it hard to keep the Congress MLAs intact. The Congress has the exact numbers to win the seat if there are no abstentions, invalidation of votes or cross voting. However, if the Congress voting pattern is disturbed, there is no way he can win and Kartikeya Sharma would emerge victorious since he already has an assured support of at least 27 members and may also benefit because of the second preference votes which may be cast in his favour. Ajay is not expected to get any second preference vote from either the BJP, Ajay Chautala’s party or any of the Independents and thus could be stranded midway. There are other permutations and combinations that may come into play at the last moment.
In Rajasthan, it is possible that one of the Congress nominees may get defeated if Subhash Goyal is able to get the BJP surplus votes and those of Independents on his side. What the Congress is expecting is that Vasundhra Raje may ensure Goyal’s win by plotting the defeat of the official BJP nominee. This is unlikely to happen.
If the game plan with the Congress is to target those close to Rahul Gandhi, then Surjewala could be in trouble. But in his case, he is the first of the three nominees and would clear the minimum number required to win very easily if there are no deviations.
What might happen is that there may be a tussle for the Congress votes between Mukul Wasnik, who is the second nominee and Pramod Tewari, who is also being backed by powerful business houses. Imran Pratapgarhi can be a soft target but the leadership of the Maharashtra coalition may ensure his win. There are lessons for the Central leadership to learn from this election. Between us.