P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh Congress candidates from state

P. Chidambaram or Jairam Ramesh may be fielded by the Congress as its candidate for Rajya Sabha election from Maharashtra. Sources from the party said that the Congress high command wants party’s senior leaders in Rajya Sabha and therefore one is likely to be from Maharashtra’s quota and the other from Karnataka.

A highly-placed source from the Delhi Congress said party president Sonia Gandhi had decided to field Mr Chidambaram and Mr Ramesh to counter aggressive BJP members in Rajya Sabha. “BJP has recently recommended Subramanian Swamy as its member for Rajya Sabha from the President-nominated quota. We can see how Swamy is targeting Congress in the Rajya Sabha. Arun Jaitley is another BJP member and minister who always tries to corner Congress,” said the source, who did not wish to be named.

“In the Karnataka Assembly, the Congress has 123 members and two candidate could win as the quota to elect a candidate is approximately 41.2 or 42 votes. Senior Congress member Oscar Fernandes’s term as a Rajya Sabha member will end on June 30 this year. Hence, he would be fielded on the same quota. The second candidate would be either Mr Chidambaram or Mr Ramesh from the Karnataka Assembly quota,” said the source.

Mr Fernandes was elected from Karnataka quota in 2010, whereas Mr Ramesh was from Andhra Pradesh.

In Maharashtra, Congress has 42 members and only one candidate can win from the state. “If the latter is not imposed from the state quota, and leaders from Maharashtra would be allowed to contest Rajya Sabha poll from the state, then Gurudas Kamat, Mukul Vasnik, Vilas Muttemwar and Sushilkumar Shinde will be the probable candidates.

According to the source, Milind Deora, who is from Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s camp, would be the dark horse for the Congress candidature from Maharashtra.

The RS polls will be held on June 10 and the last date for filing nominations is May 31. Six members from Maharashtra will be retiring from Rajya Sabha, including Vijay Darda and Avinash Pandey (Congress), Praful Patel and Ishwarlal Jain (NCP), Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena) and Piyush Goyal (BJP) on July 4.

While there is unrest against Mr Pandey within the party, Maharashtra Congress state president Ashok Chavan is in favour of him. A senior Congress leader, on condition of anonymity, said that Mr Pandey had failed to make an impression in the House during last two years in the Opposition. “He is AICC secretary and let him have full-time responsibility of party affairs. The party has given Mr Darda an opportunity twice and once he was elected as an independent RS member. So, there’s no need for him to continue,” the leader said.

Meanwhile, a Shiv Sena insider has claimed that its party chief has finalised the name of outgoing RS member Sanjay Raut as its candidate.