Digvijaya to get second term in RS, Cong depends on former BSP leader for second seat

BHOPAL: With 24 seats vacant in the state assembly and 22 former MLAs not eligible for voting, the number of votes required for a Upper House seat in the state is 52. Rajya Sabha elections are scheduled for June 19 and Congress after the fall of its government has 92 legislators in the House as opposed to BJP’s 107. The present figures show that BJP is prepared to get two of the three vacant Upper House seats from the state.
For Congress, Digvijaya Singh is sure to get his second term in the Rajya Sabha while the party’s second candidate Phool Singh Baraiyya’s election is falling short by 12 votes. Congress party is depending on former BSP state president Phool Singh Baraiyya’s Dalit card and personal rapport with the four independents, two BSP MLAs and one SP legislator. But even after this, he may not be lucky.
State Congress leaders claimed that the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections is one of the several factors why chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has postponed cabinet expansion. Toppling of the Kamal Nath government has paved the way for 22 former Congress MLAs, who are now in the BJP, vying for ministerial berths. And the more of these berths are given to Congress rebels, there are chances of rebellion and discontent within the BJP.
“In the Rajya Sabha elections, no whip is issued. So an MLA can cross-vote without the risk of his disqualification,” AICC media coordinator Abhay Dubey explained.
Though BJP might walk away with two Rajya Sabha seats, yet Congress is not to give-up so soon. Sources in the party said that after the biennial elections, Congress will approach the courts against BJP candidates Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sumer Singh Solanki.
Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh had in March raised objections with the Election Commission claiming Scindia has not provided details of cases pending against him in the nomination papers. Phool Singh Baraiyya had approached EC and demanded that Sumer Singh Solanki be disqualified because he was a working professor in a college on the day of filing his nomination papers. His resignation from the job was accepted a day after he filed nominations.
Scindia and Solanki filed their report to the returning officer and were cleared to contest the Rajya Sabha election. But Congress claims, it will reach the courts and fight a legal battle against the two BJP candidates.