Seeking to ensure that its candidates win the Rajya Sabha elections in Haryana, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has appointed senior party leaders, including Mallikarjun Kharge and Bhupesh Baghel, as observers to the States. The BJP has put its weight behind independent candidates in Haryana and Rajasthan.
The BJP has already appointed its Cabinet Ministers as observers in all the polling states. While some of the states have already sent 41 members to the Upper House, the remaining present a battle of prestige for the ruling BJP and opposition Congress.
Of the 57 vacancies in Rajya Sabha, 41 candidates in 11 states have so far been elected unopposed. The elections will be held for 16 seats in four states of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana and Karnataka.
While Kharge has been made the observer for Maharashtra, Baghel and Rajeev Shukla have been made observers for Haryana, and Pawan Kumar Bansal and TS Singh Deo for Rajasthan. Shukla has already got a RS berth from Chhattisgarh last week. For the four Rajya Sabha seats in Rajasthan, the Congress has fielded three candidates — Randeep Surjewala, Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari.
While the Congress is sure to get two seats, it needs 15 more votes to win the third seat of Tiwari. The BJP has fielded its former Minister Ghanshyam Tiwari, and backed media baron Subhash Chandra as an independent for the second seat.
Nearly 70 Congress MLAs from Rajasthan are camping at a hotel in Udaipur amid fears of horse trading by the BJP. After winning the two seats, the party will have 26 surplus votes, 15 short of the required 41 to win the third seat. On the other hand, the BJP has 71 MLAs in the State Assembly and is set to win one seat after which it will be left with 30 surplus votes.
Congress has also shifted its MLAs in Haryana to a resort in Raipur in Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh.
Former Union Minister and party general secretary Ajay Maken is the Congress candidate from Haryana. The Congress and the BJP are likely get one seat each, but the BJP has backed independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma for the second seat.
Sharma is the son of Venod Sharma and son-in-law of former Haryana Speaker Kuldeep Sharma. Both are considered close to former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Congress needs 31 votes to win the seat and has as many MLAs while BJP is banking on cross-voting.
In Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena and the BJP will battle it out for the sixth seat of Rajya Sabha as none of the seven candidates in the fray — four of the ruling MVA and three of BJP — withdrew their nominations on Friday.