A list of Congress nominees for the Rajya Sabha would be released on Saturday, the party indicated here on Friday night. While the Congress is fielding atleast three jurists for the Upper House, it will also accommodate local candidates.
The names of Kapil Sibal, Vivek Tankha and P. Chidambaram are doing the round for the Rajya Sabha nominations. Mr Sibal could be fielded from UP or Uttarakhand and Mr Tankha from MP, they said, adding that former Union minister Jairam Ramesh would be renominated.
The SP would be giving its extra votes to a Congress nominee in UP, they said.
From Maharashtra, Dr Bhalchandra Mungekar, the former member of the Planning Commission and the former vice-chancellor of Mumbai University, has emerged as a strong candidate. He was the Rajya Sab-ha member under the Pres-ident’s nominee category. Besides, the name of former Union minister Vilas Muttemwar is also doing the round. Mr Murttemwar, the seven term Lok Sabha member, had defeated the BJP candidates from Nagp-ur for four times consecutively since 1998. But PCC chief Ashok Chavan is not ruling out an outsider to be fielded from Maharashtra.
Lawyer R.K. Anand is also in the race. He was the former RS member. The party prefers to field local political faces from Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand.
Mr Tankha could be fielded from Madhya Pradesh. Meanwhile, the Congress hinted that the fight for the CLP leader is between former Union minister V. Narayanasamy and PCC chief A. Namachivayam.
