RS nominations: BJP snubs its own, backs independents

Party aims to queer the pitch for Cong's Sibal and Tankha with this move

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has extended its call of ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’ to the Rajya Sabha polls for 58 seats due on June 11.

The BJP’s support for independent candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls in more than one state has queered the pitch for Congress candidates, particularly for Kapil Sibal in Uttar Pradesh and Vivek Tankha in Madhya Pradesh. The BJP is assured of winning one of the two seats of Jharkhand. But the BJP, by having fielded  former party treasurer Mahesh Poddar, is not letting the second seat go uncontested. Basant Soren, youngest son of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Shibu Soren, could win the seat after Congress promised support.

However, BJP’s own nominations for the Rajya Sabha have been a snub to some of its senior leaders that they are out of favour. The decision on nominations has also been an unambiguous message to its upcoming leaders that they need to continue working for the party and shouldn’t expect rewards this soon.

The BJP leadership has nominated former state president Gopal Narayan Singh. He was selected from a list of seven candidates that had included former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, former MP Shahnawaz Hussain, Kiran Ghai and Rameshwar Chaurasiya. Singh is a long time rival of Sushil Modi.

In its selection of 18 candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls on June 11, the BJP leadership overlooked the claims of some of its national general secretaries while recognizing the decades of service to the party by some of its vice presidents. Party vice presidents Purushottam K Rupala, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and Om Prakash Mathur have been given Upper House nominations.

Of the BJP’s eight national general secretaries, the names of at least four were discussed for Rajya Sabha nominations. These were Ram Madhav, Kailash Vijaywargiya, Dr Anil Jain and P Muralidhar Rao. Party sources said that the leadership decided that the four should continue to devote time to strengthening the party organization. Madhav even tweeted that he wasn’t in the race for a Rajya Sabha nomination.

In Uttar Pradesh, the support of BJP legislators to socialite Priti Mahapatra could make Congress candidate Kapil Sibal’s election treacherous. Uttar Pradesh has 11 Rajya Sabha vacancies. There are now 12 candidates in the fray with the entry of Mahapatra that makes voting necessary. Other candidates include seven from Samajwadi Party, two from Bahujan Samaj Party and one each from the Congress and BJP.

In the house of 403, a candidate to get elected needs 34 first preference votes. All others, barring Sibal and Mahapatra, are likely to get the requisite first preference votes. The Congress has 28 legislators and is hoping for six first preference votes for Sibal from other parties, especially the Samajwadi Party that has 224 legislators. But Mahapatra, assured of 16 extra first preference votes of the BJP, could make the contest interesting if she finds support from across party lines.

Similarly, in Madhya Pradesh the BJP has blessed the candidature of state unit general secretary Vinod Gotiya. He filed his nomination as an independent candidate. Madhya Pradesh has three vacant seats with BJP’s Anil Madhav Dave and MJ Akbar assured of victory. There will now be a contest for the third seat between Gotiya and Congress’ Tankha.

It was earlier thought that the BJP might allow Tankha get elected unopposed given the lawyer’s rapport with CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan. A candidate to get elected would need 58 votes in the 230-member assembly. The Congress has 57 legislators. With 165 MLAs, the BJP has an extra 49 first preference votes and is assured of support of three independent MLAs. Much would hinge on which way the four BSP MLAs might lean and whether any Congress MLAs decide to not turn up for voting.