Lobbying underway in both BJP and Congress in Haryana for two Rajya Sabha seats

| | Chandigarh
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Lobbying underway in both BJP and Congress in Haryana for two Rajya Sabha seats

Thursday, 26 May 2022 | MANOJ KUMAR | Chandigarh

With the release of election schedule to fill two vacant seats in the Rajya Sabha,  lobbying has begun among the senior leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress in Haryana for the June 10 election. 

 

As one seat each would go to the BJP-JJP coalition and Congress, the lobbying has shifted to New Delhi for both the parties as their high command would have the final say in the selection of the candidates.

Two of the five Upper House seats from Haryana will fall vacant on August 1 with media baron Subhash Chandra, who was elected with the BJP’s support, and Delhi-based BJP leader Dushyant Gautam completing their terms. The poll process will be completed by June 13.

Though the Congress has been out of power in Haryana since 2014, when the BJP formed its first government in the state under Manohar Lal Khattar, it has managed to remain a party of significance. In the 2019 Assembly election, it won 31 seats in comparison to the 15 bagged in the previous election.

Going by the numerical strength in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha Assembly, one seat each is set to go to the BJP-JJP alliance and the Congress. The senior leaders of both the parties are leaving no stone unturned to lobby for the coveted seats.

A senior BJP leader said that the party state executive is likely to meet in Hisar on May 27 and 28 and will deliberate on the forthcoming Rajya Sabha elections. In 2020, in a virtual snub to its Jat leaders who were in the reckoning for two Rajya Sabha seats in Haryana, the BJP sprung a surprise and fielded Ram Chander Jangra, an OBC, and Dushyant Kumar Gautam, from the SC community, as the party’s Rajya Sabha nominees. Names of at least three top Jat leaders of the BJP, including former Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu, BJP’s former state president Subhash Barala and former Agriculture Minister O P Dhankar, were doing the rounds for the coveted seats of Rajya Sabha. But none out of the three were considered.

This year too, several senior state BJP leaders, including former ministers, including Ram Bilas Sharma, Capt Abhimanyu, current BJP chief Om Prakash Dhankar and former chief Subhash Barala are in the reckoning for the Rajya Sabha nominations. Two days ago, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that the party will take its decision on time.

A senior BJP leader said, “It is not necessary that the party’s candidate should be from the state, as last time the party high command had picked Delhi-based leader Dushyant Kumar Gautam for Rajya Sabha seat.”

As far as the Congress is concerned, the party high command too would have the final say in the selection of the candidate. 

Former Union minister Kumari Selja, who made way for Udai Bhan, a loyalist of two-time chief minister Hooda, by stepping down as Haryana Congress president recently, is likely to be accommodated in the Rajya Sabha. However, the faction headed by Hooda is also trying its level best to get a Rajya Sabha nomination for one of the leaders from its faction. “As the Congress party had recently lost assembly elections in many states, it is not necessary that the party’s candidate should be from the state, '' said a senior State Congress leader. In that scenario, a senior leader from outside too could find the favour of the party. 

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