A day after the Congress announced its candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections, several party leaders on Monday expressed disappointment about its choices of nominees.
The party on Sunday nominated ten leaders from seven states for the Upper House of Parliament. It has nominated Randeep Singh Surjewala, Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari from Rajasthan, Rajeev Shukla and Ranjeet Ranjan from Chhattisgarh, Ajay Maken from Haryana, Jairam Ramesh from Karnataka, Vivek Tankha from Madhya Pradesh, Imran Pratapgarhi from Maharashtra and P Chidambaram from Tamil Nadu.
On Monday, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera remarked that perhaps his “penance fell short”, in an apparent reaction to him not having been named as a candidate from Rajasthan. The remark was also a reference to a comment made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November, when he announced that three contentious farm laws that had sparked nationwide protests would be repealed.
However, the Congress spokesperson congratulated party leaders who had been nominated for the Rajya Sabha. In a subsequent video message, he said that objective of the Congress was to defeat the “poisonous ideology” of the Bharatiya Janata Party and to ensure the welfare of the poorest sections of society.
“Getting blinded by personal ambition is a luxury you and I cannot afford in this fight,” Khera said. “This is a fight bigger than any ambition.”
Meanwhile, actor-turned-politician Nagma said that Congress President Sonia Gandhi had promised her that she would be accommodated in the Rajya Sabha when she joined the party in 2003-’04. She questioned Pratapgarhi’s nomination from Maharashtra and asked whether she was less deserving.
“My 18 years of penance also fell short before Imran Bhai,” she remarked in response to Khera’s tweet.
However, Nagma also congratulated those who were named as candidates by the Congress.
Congress MLA from Rajasthan’s Sirohi constituency Sanyam Lodha asked why none of the candidates from Rajasthan hailed from the state. “The Congress must explain why no party leader or worker from Rajasthan was made a candidate in the Rajya Sabha election,” he said.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan BJP chief Satish Poonia said in a sarcastic vein that the list of candidates released by the Congress was “yet another achievement from the Chintan Shivir held in Rajasthan”. The Congress had held the Chintan Shivir, or introspection meeting, to decide on its future strategy after its poor performance in the recent Assembly elections.
The voting for the Rajya Sabha polls will take place from 9 am to 4 pm on June 10. The votes will be counted at 5 pm on the same day. Among the 57 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party holds 23, while the Congress has eight.
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