Rajya Sabha nominations: Congress fields Sonia Gandhi from Rajasthan, Abhishek Manu Singhvi Himachal

Shubhadeep Choudhury

New Delhi, February 14

The Congress on Wednesday announced 10 candidates, including former party chief Sonia Gandhi, lawyer-cum-politician Abhishek Manu Singhvi, party treasurer Ajay Maken and former Union minister Renuka Chowdhury, for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections on February 27.

Editorial: Sonia in Rajya Sabha

Other candidates nominated by the party are Syed Naseer Hussain, GC Chandrashekhar, Anil Kumar Yadav, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Ashok Singh and Chandrakant Handore.

Gandhi, accompanied by her son Rahul Gandhi, daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, filed her papers in Jaipur for a vacancy in the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan.

Three from karnataka

• Karnataka: Ajay Maken, Syed Naseer Hussain, GC Chandrashekhar
• Telangana: Anil Kumar Yadav, Renuka Chowdhury
• Bihar: Congress state unit president Akhilesh Prasad Singh
• Maharashtra: Cong state working chief Chandrakant Handore
• Madhya Pradesh: Ashok Singh

The 77-year-old former Congress president is set to enter the upper House for the first time. Gandhi will fill the seat that will fall vacant in April after former Prime Minister Manmohan Sigh completes his Rajya Sabha tenure.

Singvi has been fielded from Himachal Pradesh, Chowdhury from Telangana and Maken from Karnataka.

Hussain and Chandrasekhar, two retiring members, have been renominated from Karnataka. However, L Hanumanthaiah failed to get a fresh tenure in the upper House from the state. Instead, the party opted for Delhi leader and party treasurer Ajay Maken, who is closely associated with Rahul and had previously faced defeat in Haryana due to internal divisions within the party. Hussain, a member of the Congress Working Committee, serves as the party whip in the Rajya Sabha.

The party has renominated its Bihar unit chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh from the state. He filed his nomination on Tuesday. From Madhya Pradesh, the party has fielded local leader Ashok Singh. It has named Handore from Maharashtra.

Singhvi would file his papers on Thursday, said HP Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

Senior party leader and former Union minister Anand Sharma was seeking a Rajya Sabha berth from Himachal, which is his home state. The seat will fall vacant as BJP chief JP Nadda’s tenure will end in April this year.

Fifty-eight Rajya Sabha members will be retiring by the first week of May. The Congress is in a position to win around 10 of these seats.