Congress fields Sonia Gandhi, Maken, Singhvi for Rajya Sabha

 Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday filed her nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan. She was accompanied by her son and party leader Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanaka Gandhi besides former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gahlot in Jaipur while filing her papers.

The party also named senior leaders Ajay Maken and Abhishek Singhvi for the Rajya Sabha biennial election to be held on February 27.

Sonia Gandhi, 77, is all set to enter the Upper House for the first time. She will fill the seat that will fall vacant in April after former prime minister Manmohan Sigh completes his Rajya Sabha tenure.

Party treasurer and former Union minister Ajay Maken has been fielded from Karnataka and Abhishek Singhvi from Himachal Pradesh as both the states are ruled by the party. Maken faced an embarrassment when he lost the Rajya Sabha election from Haryana last year.

The Congress also nominated former union minister Renuka Chowdhury as Rajya Sabha candidate from Telangana along with local leader M Anil Kumar Yadav from the southern state where the party came into power in December.

Singhvi, a senior Supreme Court advocate, will file his nomination for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Himachal Pradesh on Thursday, state chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said.

The seat from Himachal Pradesh will fall vacant as BJP chief J P Nadda’s tenure will end in April this year. Nadda has been renominated by the party from Gujarat this time as the BJP does not have numbers in the state assembly to ensure victory from Himachal Pradesh.

The biennial elections to fill 56 seats of Rajya Sabha will be held on February 27. The last date for filing of nominations is February 15.

The Congress also renominated Syed Naseer Hussain, who is a coordinator in the office of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge. This will be Hussain’s second term as a Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka.

According to a statement, the party has also renominated its Bihar unit chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh from the state. He has already filed his nomination papers.

Party leader from Karnataka G C Chandrasekhar has been renominated by the party in the list announced on Wednesday.

From Madhya Pradesh, the Congress has fielded local leader Ashok Singh. He is the state party treasurer and considered close to former CM Digvijay Singh . It has named Chandrakant Handore as its candidate from Maharashtra.