New Delhi: Speculation is rife in the saffron corridor that the Bharatiya Janata Party is planning to nominate dissident AAP leader Kumar Vishwas to Rajya Sabha. With the terms of cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and actress Rekha ending in April this year, there are two vacancies. If nominated by the BJP, Mr Vishwas is expected to play a leading role in publicising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s achievements during the 2019 general elections, in verse.
A BJP source told this newspaper that the party leadership is considering Mr Vishwas, a poet of repute, for Rajya Sabha as a nominated member from the field of literature.
“If everything works out, Mr Vishwas’ name, which is under serious consideration, will be forwarded to President Ram Nath Kovind in July to nominate him to Rajya Sabha.”
The party leader added that the decision to join the BJP after getting nominated to Rajya Sabha would be left to Mr Vishwas.
As for the BJP, the unique selling point of Mr Vishwas, a poet-politician, “is his huge fan following among the youth in the Hindi-speaking belt.” He is expected to “pen Modiji’s achievements in lyrics and poetry,” the leader said.
Mr Vishwas, who has a PhD in Hindi literature is one of the founding members of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). He locked horns with party chief Arvind Kejriwal when he started to question the party chief’s style of functioning. Also, while Mr Kejriwal had questioned the Modi government’s much publicised surgical strikes, Mr Vishwas had openly supported it. Differences reached a boiling point when Mr Vishwas was denied Rajya Sabha nomination by the AAP leadership.
Under article 80 of the Constitution, the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) is composed of not more than 250 members, of whom 12 are nominated by the President of India from amongst persons who have special knowledge or practical experience in literature, science, art and social service.
At this juncture there are three vacancies in the Rajya Sabha and other nine nominated members are K.T.S. Tulsi, Dr Subramanian Swamy, K. Parasaran, Suresh Gopi, MC Mary Kom, Dr Narendra Jadhav, Roopa Ganguly, Swapan Dasgupta and Sambhaji Chhatrapati.
