MUMBAI: The estranged Congress leader and former minister Kripashankar Singh who was mired into the multiple controversies is likely to be the fourth candidate of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi for Rajya Sabha.
Maharashtra has to send seven people to Rajya Sabha. As per the state assembly quota, the BJP can get three Rajya Sabha seats while the Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena will get one seat each in Rajya Sabha.
In the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi, the fight is for the fourth seats that required the additional votes from across the party lines.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar and the Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray have zeroed down Kripashankar Singh for the fourth seat while from BJP the industrialist Sanjay Kakade is chosen.
Kakade is the sitting Rajya Sabha member from BJP quota whose tenure will expire by end of this month.
Sources in Congress said that the Congress leadership is not happy with Kripashankar’s candidature. “Singh has not participated in state assembly elections. In fact, he was on his way to join the BJP. So there is no point fielding Singh on Congress ticket for Rajya Sabha. However, Thackeray and Pawar argued that the Singh candidature will help them in the upcoming BMC elections to get the North Indian votes,” said sources.
In 2012, the ED had initiated an inquiry into Kripashankar Singh's Rs 320 crore disproportionate asset case. The ED possess details of almost 22 bank accounts of Kripashankar's family. There have been transactions in crores that was not explained by the family members. Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) is also investing the some unusual transactions in Kripashankar's bank accounts.