Ending hopes of an early political rehabilitation for former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, the Congress on Tuesday denied her a Rajya Sabha berth. Instead the party named Kumari Selja as the Congress nominee from Haryana.
Congress also nominated Sultanpur MP Sanjay Singh from Assam besides re-nominating Assam PCC chief Bhubaneswar Kalita from the State. Sanjay Singh was reportedly in touch with the BJP, which wanted him to contest from Amethi against Rahul Gandhi and vacate his seat for Varun Gandhi. Selja resigned from the Cabinet after filing her nominations from the Union Council of
Ministers. She would be assigned a party position, sources said.
Dikshit was being talked about as a probable candidate either from Haryana or Himachal Pradesh. Among five names suggested from Haryana, the party's choice fell on Selja, a known detractor of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Dikshit's nomination earlier looked certain from Himachal Pradesh, but when Vipolve Thakur was named from the Hill State, Dikshit was trying to get a RS ticket from Haryana.
Sources said Hooda objected to Dikshit's nomination on the grounds that in the election year the party would not take any risk to accommodate a leader who suffered such a humiliating defeat at the AAP’s hands in Delhi. AAP is making inroads in Haryana and the Congress is jittery about its impact in the State.
Dismissing questions as to whether Congress strategists are running away from contest against Narendra Modi-led BJP in the lok Sabha polls and hence moving to Rajya Sabha, AICC spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said such decisions taken by the parties cannot be a subject of review by the media.
To questions about differences within the party over some of the Rajya Sabha nominations, Singvi said every party puts forward its best candidates in a given situation after deliberations and whenever some person is nominated; there are people who hold a different view.
The party also rubbished suggestions that Sanjay Singh was nominated from Assam under pressure since he threatened to join the BJP and contest against Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi. "Sanjay should not be taking the Rajya Sabha seat if he was so keen to fight us. He has been a Congress member and has agreed to contest the Rajya Sabha elections.... All such things are assumptions, subjective views," Singhvi said
Congress general secretaries Digvijay Singh and Madhusudan Mistri were among five Congress nominees for Rajya Sabha elections announced on Monday. From Andhra Pradesh, Congress re-nominated all the three sitting Rajya Sabha MPs, KVP Ramachandra Rao, MA Khan and T Subbarami Reddy. Khan hails from Hyderabad.
The party had on Sunday announced the names of seven candidates, including Motilal Vora, Murli Deora and Ranjib Biswal from Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Odisha respectively. Hussain Dalwai was also re-nominated from Maharashtra. Other nominees were Haji Abdul Salam from Manipur, and Wansuk Syiem from Meghalaya.