The Congress party on late Sunday released its list of nominees for the Rajya Sabha polls slated for 10 June. But the party has not only come under criticism from outside for its choice of candidates, but is also witnessing significant backlash from within the party.
The Congress has fielded 10 candidates for the 57 seats that will fall vacant soon: Rajeev Shukla and Ranjeet Ranjan from Chhattisgarh, Ajay Maken from Haryana, Jairam Ramesh from Karnataka, Vivek Tankha from Madhya Pradesh, Imran Pratapgarhi from Maharashtra, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari from Rajasthan, and former Home Minister P Chidambaram from Tamil Nadu.
No Representation From Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh
Congress hasn’t fielded a single candidate hailing from the two states it has a government in: Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. Both the states will also be going for assembly polls next year, and yet the local leaders from these states weren’t accommodated.
Randeep Surjewala, Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari have been nominated from Rajasthan; none of them are originally from the state. This has already caused Rajasthan Congress members and party workers to express their disappointment publicly. In the previous Rajya Sabha election two years ago, K.C. Venugopal, another outsider, had already been sent to the upper house from Rajasthan.
Sanyam Lodha, Congress MLA from Rajasthan’s Sirohi, hit out at the party in a tweet.
Later, speaking to The Quint, Lodha elaborated on his disappointment.
"This is a mistake. Not naming even one candidate from Rajasthan for the Rajya Sabha elections will let the workers and leaders down. Congress should understand that it can't fight without an army and for the army to fight it can't let down the morale of the army,” Lodha said.
“I have voiced my concerns, I have appealed, and I hope they will reconsider. Party workers have toiled hard to keep the mantle high and they should be given the opportunity. It's their right, however, failing to do so will surely impact Congress in the coming elections. A disheartened employee doesn't work for the betterment," added Lodha, who was made the advisor to Gehlot last year.
Other party workers complained that the much-hyped Chintan Shivir that took place in Udaipur earlier this month, used Rajasthan has a base for the party to conduct its meet-and-greet, without much thought for representation from the state in the Rajya Sabha.
BJP leader and deputy leader of opposition in the Rajasthan assembly Rajendra Rathore mocked the Congress party for its choices, replying to Lodha’s tweet saying, “No one knows better than you the pain of giving Rajya Sabha election ticket to outsiders because Congress party has denied you ticket every time.”
Meanwhile, the two candidates from Chhattisgarh, Rajeev Shukla and Ranjeet Ranjan are from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar respectively.
"There is an air of despondency and frustration among the rank and file of Congress. Although they would be less vocal because the decision is coming from central leadership but because it's coming from the top, Baghel's stand is being questioned. His stand on regionalism and the way he has been campaigning with a touch of regionalism is now being questioned. People within the party are asking why their CM didn't say anything for the people of Chhattisgarh who would have probably been better served with someone who knows them, is one of them," Ashok Tomar, political commentator from Chhattisgarh said.
A Disappointed Pawan Khera and Furious Nagma
While many party leaders would have expected to make it to the list of nominees, there was evident disappointment over Congress’ feisty spokesperson Pawan Khera not being awarded with a candidature. So much so that Khera, not known to ever speak against the party publicly, put out a dejected tweet minutes after the party announced its nomination list.
'Maybe something was missing in my penance”, Khera tweeted.
A day later, however, Khera shared an old tweet of his where he had said his identity is because of the Congress, and reiterated the sentiment.
He also subsequently congratulated all his party colleagues who have been nominated.
But Maharashtra Congress leader Nagma was more explicit and vocal in her dismay on not being nominated. The actress-turned-politician hit out directly at Imran Pratapgarhi, the party’s minority cell leader who has been given a ticket from Maharashtra.
She then pointedly questioned Sonia Gandhi, for having “personally committed to accommodating” Nagma in the Rajya Sabha back in 2003-04 when she joined the Congress party “on her behest.”
“Since then it’s been 18Yrs they dint find an opportunity Mr Imran is accommodated in RS frm Maha I ask am I less deserving,” she wrote.
No Learnings From Chintan Shivir?
At the Udaipur Chintan Shivir, which was supposed to lead to serious course-correction by the Congress, multiple changes were discussed and ostensibly committed to.
One of these principles was of ‘one leader, one post’, but it seems to have been disregarded fairly quickly after the Chintan Shivir. For instance, Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Ajay Maken are general secretaries in the AICC, and have now been nominated for the Rajya Sabha too.
Ranjeet Ranjan is the AICC secretary while Rajeev Shukla is a former minister and also presently part of the Congress Working Committee.
Anand Sharma, Ghulam Nabi Azad Cut To Size
Anand Sharma and Ghulam Nabi Azad, both some of the most vocal members of the ‘G23’, have not been renominated for the Rajya Sabha. While Azad’s tenure ended last year, Sharma’s will end this year.
Interestingly, both the leaders were included in a Political Advisory Group formed after the Chintan Shivir, which will work directly with Sonia Gandhi. However without a post in the Rajya Sabha, where the two derive most of their political leverage from, it’s unlikely that there role in the advisory group will hold much weight.
Of the G23 leaders, Mukul Wasnik and Vivek Tankha have been nominated for the Rajya Sabha polls. No other G23 leader has been named.
All in all, it is the bonafide party loyalists who seem to have been rewarded in the selection for Rajya Sabha polls.
3 Nominees From UP Where Congress Has 2 MLAs
Many are so bewildered by the Congress’ choice to send three leaders who are from Uttar Pradesh to the Rajya Sabha: Rajeev Shukla, Pramod Tiwari and Imran Pratapgarhi. The party fared extremely poorly in the recent UP assembly elections, managing to win just 2 seats. To then send 3 leaders from a state where it doesn’t enjoy popularity or decent following, was an odd choice.
In particular, choosing poet-turned-politician Pratapgarhi raised several eyebrows as the leader is just 34 and joined the Congress only in 2019, losing his first and only election of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
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