NEW DELHI: There were few surprises in the nominations made by parties for the Rajya Sabha elections on March 26, with many of the outgoing members being re-nominated and heavyweights, who surprisingly lost the Lok Sabha polls last year, being nominated on Thursday. Amid deepening political crisis in Madhya Pradesh, Congress has fielded former chief minister Digvijaya Singh and Dalit leader Phool Singh Baraiya from MP as its Rajya Sabha candidates. Accompanied by wife Amrita Rai Singh and Rajya Sabha member Vivek Tankha, Singh (whose term as incumbent member of the Upper House ends next month) filed his nomination.
Baraiya, who is the chief of Bahujan Sangharsh Dal had supported Congress in 2018 Assembly polls.
In Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena nominated its deputy leader Priyanka Chaturvedi as the party’s candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls, a party leader said. Chaturvedi had quit the Congress and joined the Shiv Sena in April 2019. However, after Chaturvedi’s candidature was announced, party veteran and former Aurangabad MP Chandrakant Khaire was seen sulking.
He took aim at the party leadership saying that the Shiv Sena of Aaditya Thackeray perhaps does not need old guards like him. There were also reports of Congress demanding an additional Rajya Sabha seat in the coalition government. The NCP had decided to nominate former state minister Fauzia Khan as its second candidate, but she has not filed her papers yet. Opposition Congress in Manipur is buying time to decide on its candidate for elections to the lone Rajya Sabha seat. So far, there is just one candidate, party spokesman Ningombam Bupenda Meitei, who had formally applied for the ticket.