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Congress-ruled states compete to offer Priyanka Gandhi RS seat
In Madhya Pradesh, minister Sajjan Singh Verma has already suggested that she be fielded from one of the three RS seats the party is likely to gain from the state.
Rajasthan is the latest Congress-ruled state to have offered to send party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to the Rajya Sabha. Party’s Rajasthan in-charge Avinash Pande said on Wednesday that all leaders and workers in the state wish that Priyanka Gandhi is nominated for one of the two Rajya Sabha seats that Congress is likely to bag in Rajasthan in April this year.
Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are the other two states said to be interested in nominating Priyanka to the upper house of the parliament.
“Priyanka Ji (Priyanka Gandhi Vadra) is a well-accepted leader in the party, Rajasthan is one of the states which is in a position to send two people to Rajya Sabha. All workers and leaders of party wish to send her to Rajya Sabha,” Pande told ANI.
Pande, however, added that the issue had not been discussed in the party yet. He added another caveat by saying that naming a Rajya Sabha candidate was the prerogative of the Congress president.
“Every Congress worker desires that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra should be a Rajya Sabha member. She is an undisputed leader of the party and any state would want to recommend her name for nomination to the upper house,” PTI quoted Pande as saying.
In Madhya Pradesh, minister Sajjan Singh Verma has already suggested that she be fielded from one of the three RS seats the party is likely to gain from the state.
Talk of Priyanka Gandhi’s possible nomination to the Rajya Sabha has been rife but Congress has called it speculative and refused to say more on the subject.
“We do not answer speculative questions,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala was quoted as saying by PTI.
Priyanka Gandhi formally entered politics as Congress party’s in-charge for eastern Uttar Pradesh just before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
She has been party’s leading voice opposing BJP’s Yogi Adityanath government in the Uttar Pradesh since then and has often been described as an “aggressive” by political observers.
51 seats are falling vacant in Rajya Sabha in April and the Congress is likely to corner at least nine seats from party-ruled states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Maharashtra.
