Congress declared former Union minister P. Chidambaram’s candidature from Maharashtra for Rajya Sabha and senior leader Narayan Rane for the Legislative Council.
Congress declared former Union minister P. Chidambaram’s candidature from Maharashtra for Rajya Sabha and senior leader Narayan Rane for the Legislative Council. Party sources said both leaders were roped in to have more aggressive faces and also taking into consideration their experience in politics. The Asian Age had reported Mr Chidambaram’s likely candidature from the state in its May 16 edition.
Congress state president Ashok Chavan on Saturday announced Mr Chidambaram’s name from Maharashtra for Rajya Sabha. The seat was vacant after Nagpur MP Avinash Pande retired.
Mr Rane confirmed his candidature for the state Legislative Council. “I received a call from Ashok Chavan confirming my candidature,” he said. In the council, the two of the Congress’ seats were vacant, but the party has decided to put only one candidate and help NCP to get their two candidates — chairman of the house Ramraje Nimbalkar and leader of opposition in the Council Dhananjay Munde — elected.
The Congress has 42 MLAs and NCP 41, but Chhagan Bhujbal and Ramesh Kadam are under arrest and, hence, not eligible for voting. A candidate needs 28 votes to win the seat. Congress and NCP together can manage to get three candidates elected. They will have to get votes from independent candidates also, to complete the vote quota.
Simultaneously, Shiv Sena with a strength of 63, has fielded two candidates, Subhash Desai and Diwakar Raote, for the council. After getting its candidates elected, the Sena will have a few extra votes. It would be interesting to see for whom the party is going to divert its votes. The BJP is going to field five candidates with the party strength of 122.
Meanwhile, former Union minister of Congress Kapil Sibal who was in town on Saturday criticised the BJP for its ‘poor performance’ in the Assembly polls held in five states a few days ago.
Mr Sibal has been given candidature for Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh. “BJP contested 696 seats and won only 64. Congress contested on 335 seats and won on 115 seats. Except Assam, BJP did not gain success in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The BJP’s dream of making a Congress-mukt Bharat will never become a reality,” he said. The senior Congress leader even criticised the BJP’s two years in power, terming them a complete failure.
