All aspirants of Rajya Sabha membership from the Maharashtra Congress, who were eyeing a seat vacated by Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, are all pretty disappointed. The Congress high command is in favour of giving Mr Chavan’s Rajya Sabha seat to Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Suresh Pachouri. The exercise has now begun in the state Congress to create pressure on the top leaders by using the local versus outsider card.
Mr Chavan, who resigned from his Rajya Sabha membership and took over the charge of Maharashtra CM, needs to get elected to the state legislature before May 11.
The Congress high command has decided that the CM will contest a legislative council seat and for him, one of the sitting Congress MLCs will have to vacate his seat. After this, many Congress MLCs were hopeful that they would be offered the Rajya Sabha membership as compensation.
However, the latest development, where Mr Pachouri appears to have emerged as a favourite to go to Rajya Sabha has come as jolt to Maharashtra Congressmen.
“There is a strong sentiment in the state Congress that the Rajya Sabha member should be from the state unit only. Senior party leaders had conveyed this to the party high command a few months ago, when there were concerted efforts to give the Rajya Sabha seat from Maharashtra to Anand Sharma, who is from Himachal Pradesh. Finally, the two seats from Maharashtra were given to Vijay Darda and Avinash Pandey. Mr Sharma was sent to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan. If there is a similar attempt again this time, the top leaders will be informed about the local sentiments,” a senior state Congress leader said.
According to sources, Mr Pachouri, who is a former cabinet minister, is very close to a senior Congress leader.