Daijiworld Media Network – New Delhi
New Delhi, Mar 5: The Indian National Congress on Thursday announced its list of candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha biennial elections, renominating two sitting members and fielding fresh faces from several states.
Senior leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi has been renominated from Telangana, while Phulo Devi Netam will recontest from Chhattisgarh. The party has also nominated Karamvir Singh Boudh from Haryana and Anurag Sharma from Himachal Pradesh.
Sharma, regarded as a close associate of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, currently serves as president of the Kangra District Congress Committee.
From Tamil Nadu, where the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has allotted one Rajya Sabha seat to the Congress, the party has fielded M Christopher Tilak.
For the second seat in Telangana, the Congress has nominated Vem Narender Reddy, a close aide of Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.
The candidature of the leaders was approved by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, according to AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal. Thursday marked the last date for filing nominations.
Two Rajya Sabha seats from Telangana will fall vacant as Singhvi and K R Suresh Reddy of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi are set to retire on April 9. With the Congress holding a comfortable majority in the Telangana Assembly, Singhvi is widely expected to retain his seat.
Former MLA Narender Reddy, who currently serves as an advisor to the chief minister, expressed gratitude to senior party leaders including Sonia Gandhi, Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Venugopal, Priyanka Gandhi and others following his nomination.
The Election Commission of India has scheduled polling for March 16, with counting of votes to take place the same day at 5 pm. The biennial elections will fill 37 seats across 10 states — Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana — where members are set to retire in April.
The election notification was issued on February 26. Scrutiny of nominations will be held on March 6, while candidates can withdraw their nominations until March 9.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party has released its first list of candidates for nine seats across six states, including Laxmi Verma from Chhattisgarh.
The All India Trinamool Congress has named four candidates — Babul Supriyo, Rajeev Kumar, Menaka Guruswamy and Koel Mallick — while Naveen Patnaik of the Biju Janata Dal has nominated Santrupt Misra and Datteswar Hota from Odisha.