Congress announces Rajya Sabha poll candidates, Singhvi, Netam renominated; party springs a surprise in Himachal Pradesh

Party drops senior lawyer K T S Tulsi in Chhattisgarh where it does not have enough votes to ensure the victory of a second candidate.

New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday announced six candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections in five States while retaining two incumbent MPs — Abhishek Singhvi and Phulo Netam Devi — and dropping senior lawyer K T S Tulsi in Chhattisgarh where it does not have enough votes to ensure the victory of a second candidate.

In surprise choices, the party has selected AICC secretary Christopher Tilak in Tamil Nadu, a Dalit leader, Karamvir Singh Boudh, in Haryana and Kangra District Congress president Anurag Sharma from Himachal Pradesh to fight the March 16 polls. 

Singhvi will be returning to the Upper House for another term from Telangana where the party has also fielded Vem Narender Reddy, State party vice president and adviser to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, for the second seat as both the BRS and the BJP do not have enough MLAs to defeat the Congress.

Reddy, a former TDP leader, joined the Congress along with the Chief Minister in 2017 and three years later was appointed party State vice president. He won Assembly elections on a TDP ticket in 2004 but lost in 2010. He also lost the election to the Legislative Council in 2015.

In the 119-member Telangana Assembly, the Congress has 66 MLAs and the support of CPI’s one member while it has managed to wean away 10 MLAs from the BRS, the strength of which has declined to 27, to its side. The BJP has only eight MLAs. 

With a candidate needing 41 first preference votes to win, Congress is short of five votes but with 7-member AIMIM announcing its support, it will be smooth sail for the party's candidates. Sources also indicated that the Congress may also try to further weaken the BRS by making some more MPs to its side through what is called “horse-trading” in political parlance.

In Himachal Pradesh, Chief Minister Sukwinder Singh Sukhu has out-manoeuvred his inner-party rivals to choose his confidante Anurag Sharma while there were claims from senior leaders Anand Sharma and former State president and his bete noir Pratibha Singh. The names of Sukhu’s adviser Bittu Sharma and senior leader Surinder Chauhan were also doing rounds.

The choosing of Anurag Sharma, who was appointed district president a month ago, is being projected as giving representation to a ground-level worker as also a fresh face. 

Similarly in Haryana, the Congress leadership sidestepped claims of senior leaders Uday Bhan and Ashok Tanwar, both Dalits and former State presidents, to choose Boudh, a former government employee who joined politics after his retirement around five years ago. A Dalit, he was an aspirant for ticket in the 2024 Haryana elections but could not get one.

His candidature, a senior leader said, would help the party balance caste equations in the State where its legislature party leader Bhupinder Hooda is a Jat and party president Rao Narender Singh belongs to an OBC community.

Tilak, a Dalit Christian, has been chosen as the party candidate after the party toyed with the idea of sending former Lok Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh Meenakshi Natarajan. However, sources said, a prod from its Tamil Nadu senior ally DMK to choose a candidate with a base in the State prompted the Congress to redraw its plans.

In Chhattisgarh, the Congress has chosen to give another term for its senior leader Netam while denying a seat to Tulsi. While the Congress is losing one seat in Chhattisgarh, it is compensated with an extra seat from Telangana.