Ajay Maken With the BJP picking former minister Krishan Lal Panwar and Congress nominating Rajasthan party in-charge Ajay Maken for the Rajya Sabha polls from Haryana, the choice has surprised many in political circles here. Not only this, the Congress has decided to nominate former Haryana minister Randeep Singh Surjewala from Rajasthan apparently in an attempt to avoid groupism in his home state.
The decision to pick Panwar for BJP nominee is seen as an attempt to woo his community members from the Scheduled Castes. Earlier, the names of senior leaders like Captain Abhimanyu, Ram Bilas Sharma, Om Prakash Dhankar and Vipul Goel were doing the rounds as probable candidates of the saffron party. In Congress too, names of former minister Kumari Selja and former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal’s son Kuldeep Bishnoi were doing rounds especially in the light of recent appointment of Bhupinder Singh Hooda loyalist Udai Bhan as Haryana Congress president.
Of the total five Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana, the elections for two Rajya Sabha seats will take place, if necessary, on June 10, while the last date for filing of nominations is May 31. Given their numerical strength in the Haryana Assembly, one Rajya Sabha seat each is likely to be bagged by the ruling BJP-JJP alliance and the principal Opposition Congress.
Reflecting Haryana’s caste-centric politics, various caste-based organisations had recently come out in the state to stake their community members’ claims for the two Rajya Sabha seats to be vacated by the BJP’s Dushyant Kumar Gautam and media baron Subhash Chandra who had won the election as an independent candidate with the saffron party’s support.
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