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RS polls: Congress may field Sam Pitroda or Janardan Dwivedi

Last Updated 06 March 2018, 20:14 IST

RS polls: Congress may field Sam Pitroda or Janardan Dwivedi

NEW DELHI: The Congress may field Gandhi family loyalist and technocrat Sam Pitroda or senior leader Janardan Dwivedi from Karnataka for the Rajya Sabha polls on March 23.

With the Congress planning to field three nominees for the polls, the party top brass suggested that the selection of one candidate should be left to them, while the other two can be selected by the state leadership.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Pradesh Congress Committee president G Parameshwara met the party president Rahul Gandhi here and discussed the candidates.

Siddaramaiah suggested that all the three should be selected from among the local leaders instead of an outsider.

He also said that sending state leaders to the Rajya Sabha will also help the coming Assembly polls.

However, Rahul reportedly said that since the party wanted strong leaders in the Upper House, they wanted someone like Pitroda or Dwivedi. The party top leaders will finalise the names soon.

Some state leaders suggested the names of former Lok Sabha Speakers Meira
Kumar and Shivraj Patil.

The state leadership also suggested the names of Wakf Minister Roshan Baig or state's additional special representative to Delhi Salim Ahmed from Muslim quota and chief minister's loyalist Chenna Reddy for the third seat.

'All will be from K'taka'

When asked about the candidates, Siddaramaiah said the names are yet to be finalised. "All the three candidates will be from Karnataka only and no outsider will be fielded."

He also said JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda did not seek the Congress support for his party candidate in the polls.  

When the Congress can win all the three seats easily, how can it support the JD(S), he asked.  

The elections will be held for four vacant seats and the BJP can win one seat while the Congress can win two seats unopposed. To win the third seat, though Congress has some votes, it requires additional votes.

The Congress is planning to field the third candidate and hoping to get extra votes from the JD(S).  

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(Published 06 March 2018, 18:44 IST)

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