Swamy, Mary Kom may get RS berths

 The government is understood to have forwarded to President Pranab Mukherjee the names of persons to fill the seven vacancies in the category of nominated members of the Rajya Sabha.

The names doing the rounds included BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, former BJP MP and cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu,  boxer Mary Kom, journalist Swapan Dasgupta, dalit economist Narendra Jadhav from Maharashtra and Malayalam film actor Suresh Gopi.

An official announcement from the Rashtrapati Bhavan was expected in a day or two.
While nomination of Swamy is seen as the result of strong backing from the RSS, Jadhav’s selection is supposed to part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to reach out to the dailts.

Interestingly, Jadhav was on Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council (NAC) till 2014 and had even known to have sought a Congress ticket for the Lok Sabha polls.

Meanwhile, actor Suresh Gopi was congratulated for his nomination by Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy during a BJP campaign meeting in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday. BJP candidate and former cricketer Sreesanth too congratulated Gopi, saying this was an indicationof  Modi’s focus on Kerala. Gopi has been campaigning for the BJP in the polls.
The decision to fill the vacancies comes ahead of Parliament’s Budget session's second phase from April 25.

The Rajya Sabha has 12 nominated members in its actual total strength of 245. At present, the Upper House has five nominated members — Sachin Tendulkar, Rekha, Anu Aga, K Parasaran and K T S Tulsi — in its present strength of 236.

Though the nominated members are not bound by whip of the ruling party, they generally tend to back it.

Actor defends nomination

Malayam Actor Suresh Gopi said on Thursday that the Centre’s decision to nominate him as a Rajya Sabha member was “not political”.

“This is non-political. It (my name) was recommended by your prime minister, our prime minister, and the President is giving his consent,” the actor told reporters here.

Gopi is one of the BJP’s star campaigners for the May 16 Assembly election in the state.