State unit makes displeasure clear to party president Sonia Gandhi after it learns Union minister of commerce Anand Sharma may be nominated from Maharashtra.
It is not exactly aggressive Shiv Sena or the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) lingo, but the normally reticent Congress leaders have started talking about Maharashtra asmita (pride) quite forcefully.
Following the buzz at the Centre that Anand Sharma, Union minister for commerce, is being considered for a Rajya Sabha (RS) nomination from the state’s quota of seats, a section of the Maharashtra unit of the Congress has made its displeasure to party president Sonia Gandhi clear.
While the import of leaders from outside has been the case with Congress for long, this is the first time its leaders are making their displeasure official.
“We bowed to the wishes of the Centre when they asked us to get Rajiv Shukla of Uttar Pradesh elected to the RS from Maharashtra.
What was his involvement with people of state?” a senior general secretary of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) said.
He said this could not be allowed to become a trend. “Where do we accommodate our own committed seniors, who have worked for long for the organisation? Why shouldn’t we consider someone from the minorities or Dalits in state?” he asked.
The MPCC officials clarified, “We are not toeing the narrow Sena or MNS agenda of Marathi pride. But yes, we are talking of asmita of Maharashtra.”
The elections to six RS seats are scheduled on June 11.
According to the current quota, the Congress gets to elect two candidates. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will also get two new candidates elected while the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party will get one each.
The elections to the RS is inevitable following the end of the tenures of six senior MPs from the upper House across party lines. The MPs are Shivraj Patil (Congress), Vijay Darda (Congress), Rahul Bajaj (NCP), Tariq Anwar (NCP), Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena) and Sharad Joshi (Independent supported by the Sena).
A senior functionary of the All India Congress Committee told DNA, “Several top state leaders approached us last fortnight expressing displeasure over Delhi thrusting outsiders on the state.
We will definitely discuss the possibility of getting MPCC members elected without importing candidates.”
The process of short-listing candidates through various quarters has already begun. MPCC chief Manikrao Thakre and chief minister Ashok Chavan will formalise the list of candidates for the RS and the state legislative council next week.
The process of filing the nominations will begin on May 31.
Interestingly, in its last tenure, the NCP had accommodated Tariq Anwar (Bihar) as RS member. The party is grappling with in-house problems as the number of state unit aspirants is growing.
Earlier, actor-turned-politician Jaya Bachchan became an RS member from the Samajwadi Party’s Uttar Pradesh quota.
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