The Congress on Thursday renominated two of its sitting Rajya Sabha MPs, Abhishek Manu Singhvi from Telangana and Phulo Devi Netam from Chhattisgarh, for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections.
The party has also nominated Karamvir Singh Boudh from Haryana and Anurag Sharma from Himachal Pradesh for the biennial polls scheduled on March 16. Sharma, considered close to Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, currently serves as the president of the District Congress Committee in Kangra.
From Tamil Nadu, where the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has allotted a Rajya Sabha seat to the Congress, the party has fielded M Christopher Tilak.
For the second seat in Telangana, the Congress has nominated Vem Narender Reddy, a close aide of Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.
In a statement, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge approved the candidature of the leaders for the Rajya Sabha elections, AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal said. Thursday is the last date for filing nominations.
Two Rajya Sabha seats from Telangana will fall vacant as Singhvi and K R Suresh Reddy of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi are set to retire on April 9.
Former MLA Narender Reddy, who currently serves as an advisor to the chief minister, expressed gratitude to the Congress leadership after being nominated. In a post on X, he thanked party leaders including Sonia Gandhi, Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Venugopal, Priyanka Gandhi, Meenakshi Natarajan, Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka and Telangana PCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud.
With the Congress enjoying a comfortable majority in the Telangana Assembly, Singhvi is widely expected to retain his seat.
The Election Commission has scheduled polling for the biennial Rajya Sabha elections on March 16, with counting of votes to take place the same day at 5 pm. The elections will fill 37 seats across 10 states: Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana, whose members’ terms are set to end in April.
The election notification was issued on February 26. The last date for filing nominations is March 5, scrutiny will take place on March 6 and candidates can withdraw their nominations until March 9.
Meanwhile, several parties have begun finalising their candidates. The Bharatiya Janata Party has announced its first list of candidates for nine seats across six states, including the nomination of Laxmi Verma from Chhattisgarh.
The All India Trinamool Congress has named four candidates, Babul Supriyo, Rajeev Kumar, Menaka Guruswamy and Koel Mallick, while Naveen Patnaik of the Biju Janata Dal has nominated Santrupt Misra and Datteswar Hota from Odisha.