Congress fears Rajya Sabha election surprises in four states

Fearing “surprises” in the June 11 Rajya Sabha polls in at least four states, the Congress has asked Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sushilkumar Shinde, B.K. Hariprasad, Ajay Maken and K.V. Thomas to ensure that its nominees and those it is backing win.

The BJP’s targets are Kapil Sibal in UP, Vivek Tankha in Madhya Pradesh, R.K. Anand in Haryana and Congress’ third candidate in Karnataka. While Samaj-wadis and BSP can’t back the BJP directly, the saffron party has backed Independent Preeti Mahapatra as the 12th candidate in UP to cut into rivals’ votes. SP and BSP surplus votes should ensure Mr Sibal’s victory, but there is a question mark on whether their MLAs will follow their parties’ directive.

In MP, the BJP is backing Vinod Gotia as an Independent in a bid to scuttle Mr Tankha’s chances. The contest in Haryana got interesting with media baron Subhash Chandra and lawyer R.K. Anand contesting as Indepen-dents.

The BJP is backing Mr Chandra while the Congress and INLD are supporting Mr Anand. But Congress MLAs are divided and former CM Bhupinder Hooda is against voting with the INLD. AICC general secretary B.K. Hariprasad has called a meeting of all Haryana Congress MLAs in New Delhi Friday to ensure the party’s votes are not split.