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Rajya Sabha to miss many known faces as prominent ministers set to retire

Last Updated 14 March 2020, 17:27 IST

Many prominent politicians will be retiring from the Rajya Sabha without a re-nomination next month, after the results of Upper House polls are announced on March 26.

They include former Chhattisgarh chief minister, former governor and former AICC treasurer Motilal Vora, Madhusudan Mistry, Hussain Dalwai, former Union minister Kumari Selja, Viplovee Thakur (all Congress), Majid Memon (NCP), Videocon Chairman Rajkumar Dhoot (Shiv Sena), former Union ministers Vijay Goel and CP Thakur (BJP).

Mistry, a Rahul Gandhi pick was fielded against BJP's PM face Narendra Modi in 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Vadodara in Gujarat. He served as AICC general secretary in-charge of key states like Uttar Pradesh.

In some cases, sons have replaced fathers, like in case of Vivek Thakur replacing his father BJP leader C P Thakur in Bihar. In other cases, sons have been fielded based on father’s performance. Haryana Congress candidate Deepender Hooda was rewarded with a seat when his father, two-time chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who led the party in the recently concluded state polls and lifted the party’s numbers of morale.

Re-nomination claim of former Union minister Kumari Selja, who retires from Rajya Sabha on April 9, was ignored.

With CPM having said no to third-time re-nomination for party Secretary General Sitaram Yechury from West Bengal with the help of Congress, Rajya Sabha will miss the oratory skills of the Left leader, who retired from the Upper House in 2017. CPM has no member from Rajya Sabha this time after the expulsion of its leader Ritabrata Banerjee, the party’s lone member in RS, from the party. CPM was keen on sending Yechury to the Rajya Sabha with the help of Congress but the idea did not find favour with the politburo.

Many key faces in the Rajya Sabha like NCP boss Sharad Pawar, Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha Harivansh, Union Minister Ramadas Athavale, Supreme Court lawyer KTS Tulsi, Digvijay Singh, Senior Group of President of Reliance Industries Limited Parimal Nathwani, TRS leader K Keshav Rao will, however, stage a comeback.

Among the newcomers, prominent are Jyotiraditya Scindia, Udayanraj Bhonslse and Priyanka Chaturvedi, erstwhile Congress leaders, who will now enter the Rajya Sabha from parties ideological opponents of Congress—BJP and Shiv Sena.

Bhubaneshwar Kalita, who was a member of Rajya Sabha from Congress, will enter the Upper House this time on a BJP ticket after having quit his party last year opposing the party’s stand on abrogation of Article 370.

Patriarch from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha Shibu Soren will enter Rajya Sabha this time from Jharkhand. Maharashtra will send two women members in Rajya Sabha Priyanka Chaturvedi (Shiv Sena) and Fauzia Khan (NCP).

Politicians have chosen not to go for contests in most states, where the numbers are crystal-clear. The names of most of the newly-elects will be out on March 18 itself, when the last date of nomination draws to a close.

All seven candidates in Maharashtra, two each from BJP and NCP and one each from the Congress and Shiv Sena, all four BJD candidates in Odisha, all five candidates in Bihar-two each from the BJP and the RJD and one from the JDU, all three candidates in Assam—one from the BJP, one from BJP-backed BPF and one from the Opposition will be elected unopposed.

Candidates of all hues

The profile of Rajya Sabha entrants this time has varied hues—from a journalist and face of anti-CAA protest in Assam Ajit Kumar Bhuyan, ace Supreme Court lawyer K T S Tulsi, a descendant of Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Udayanraje Bhosale, a physician-turned-mayor Bhagwat Karad (both from BJP in Maharashtra), a professor Sumer Solanki (BJP candidate in Madhya Pradesh). There is also a political greenhorn Amarendra Dhari Singh from RJD in Patna while Parimal Nathwani is corporate.

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(Published 14 March 2020, 15:40 IST)

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