Young brigade, old guard vie for Cong RS seats

Senior journalist and author

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The biennial Rajya Sabha polls may turn out to be a good indication of the goings-on in the Congress, where the leadership issue has remained unresolved since May 25, 2019, when Rahul Gandhi had stepped down. The Congress has 46 seats in the Rajya Sabha. Eighteen of its members in the Upper House are retiring and the party is likely to win 12 or 13 seats in the upcoming polls.

During his brief but eventful tenure as the 87th president of the Indian National Congress between December 2017 and May 2019, Rahul had insisted upon a norm to send leaders to the Rajya Sabha who hailed from the state. Some would remember how in March 2018, Rajiv Shukla missed getting the party nomination from Maharashtra and Kumar Ketkar was picked as a surprise choice.

Rahul seems to be a believer in the Rajya Sabha being a council of states. Though a 2003 amendment to Section 3 of the Representation of the People’s Act, 1951 has scrapped the domicile requirement for membership into the Rajya Sabha, Rahul, perhaps, still views the Rajya Sabha as a federal chamber where the representatives of the state represent the interests of that state.

In the party circles, the buzz is that if the Congress nominations for March-April Rajya Sabha polls are given to the state leaders, Rahul’s return as Sonia’s successor would be a foregone conclusion. Senior Congress leaders privy to behind-the-scenes deliberations and thinking claim that Rahul’s return as Congress chief is subject to his reported insistence on being given a free hand in matters of appointments, nominations etc. Even as mother and son, Sonia and Rahul have a distinct style of functioning.

Going by the numerical strength in the Assemblies, the Congress is likely to win two seats each in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, and one each in Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra. The party is eyeing one seat each in Bengal, Bihar and Tamil Nadu with the help of allies and another seat in Maharashtra.

Hectic lobbying is on for these 12-13 Rajya Sabha berths. A number of young leaders (in the age bracket of 45-55) argue that the old practice of sending veterans should be done away with, particularly when seats are few and the Congress is in the need of a generational change.

Among the ‘young aspirants’ for the Upper House are those who lost the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, such as Jyotiraditya Scindia, Milind Deora, Rajiv Satav, Jitin Prasada, RPN Singh, Randeep Singh Surjewala (he lost twice in the Assembly polls), Bharat Singh Solanki, Kumari Selja and others.

From the old guard, the names of Motilal Vora (92), Mallikarjun Kharge (77), T Subbarami Reddy (76), Madhusudan Mistry (75) and Digvijaya Singh (72) are being circulated.

If the domicile or local leader issue gains currency, some of these young aspirants, namely Prasada, RPN Singh and Rajiv Shukla, may lose out as in their home state, Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has zero prospects of getting any Rajya Sabha seat.

Sonia, as the AICC chief, has the powers to set some informal ‘ground rules’. If nominating those who lost the 2019 Lok Sabha poll is made a condition for not getting the Rajya Sabha nomination, a majority of the aspirants would miss out. It would also put a question mark on the return of Digvijaya Singh and Jyotiradtiya Scindia from Madhya Pradesh, where local MLAs belonging to the Singh and Scindia camps are lobbying hard.

The task of managing contradictions and fulfilling aspirations relating to the Rajya Sabha polls is a tricky one for Sonia and Rahul. There are many, like RPN Singh, who had strategised the Jharkhand Assembly polls, and expect some reward for his labour. In Gujarat, where Madhusudan Mistry’s term is ending, Sonia-Rahul have a task to select the lone contender from among Sagar Raika, Solanki and Shakti Singh Gohil.

There is clamour for Priyanka Gandhi’s nomination too. Congress leaders feel if Priyanka is considered, all norms and ground rules would get waived. The young AICC general secretary, too, hails from Uttar Pradesh. In case she is fielded from Chhattisgarh or Madhya Pradesh, the domicile issue would become redundant.

Party leaders admit that bringing Priyanka would generate a lot of criticism, particularly from outside the party forum. Priyanka has been working in Uttar Pradesh as her karma bhoomi and her entry in the Rajya Sabha from any other state would undermine it. During the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, she had herself floated a trial balloon of contemplating to contest from Varanasi against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A year later, entering the Parliament via indirect polls may show her in some adverse light.

Both Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, Congress-ruled states, are witnessing intense power struggles from within. If Priyanka accepts CM Bhupesh Baghel or Kamal Nath’s request, reported dissent or disquiet from regional satraps would die down.

Rahul, who was abroad, is returning to India, while Sonia is travelling out of the country. Her return is expected around the time the Rajya Sabha nominations would close. A section of the Congress leaders feels that in Sonia’s scheme of things, Rajya Sabha nominations will be a mix of old and young where loyalty would be rewarded. Sonia would also send out a signal that her successor would have to inherit a party that remains jumbled and disorderly, yet accommodating to various aspirants and hope.

The question is whether Rahul, having gone through the learning experience, would get into it wilfully, dobara. After all, is there is no challenge to Rahul, except an expectation that he should stop judging them.