Bhopal: Five Rajya Sabha members from Madhya Pradesh will complete their terms in April 2018 and lobbying has already begun within the BJP and the Congress for the seats.
The tussle is more intense in the Congress which is likely to get one out of the five seats that will get vacated. Those completing their terms in the Upper House of Parliament include L Ganeshan, Union ministers Prakash Javadekar, Thawarchand Gehlot and Meghraj Jain from BJP and Satyavrat Chaturvedi from Congress.
The election for these five seats will be completed on March 23. Gehlot and Javadekar are most likely to be given another term. With the BJP focusing on Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, L Ganeshan could be another term too.
Potential candidates have fixed their gaze on the seat being vacated by Meghraj Jain who it seems, unlikely to get another chance. Those in contention include former Indore mayor Krishna Murari Moghe, BJP state general secretary Ajay Pratap Singh, former organisational general secretary Makahn Singh Chauhan and former Union minister Vikram Verma.
Meanwhile, with the BJP party sending tribal face Sampatiya Uike to Rajya Sabha in last elections, it’s unlikely to go for another tribal leader this time.
BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya’s name is also making rounds but he has already expressed disinterest in Rajya Sabha membership.
The opposition Congress faces a tougher challenge. Completing his second term on April 2, Satyavrat Chaturvedi is least likely to be given a third chance. Sources, however, said Chaturvedi is lobbying hard for another term in Rajya Sabha.
Former Union minister Suresh Pachauri is also in the race. Another name doing the rounds is Shobha Oza, who is believed to be close to Congress president Rahul Gandhi and has earlier served as the head of the party’s women wing. Many Congressmen say the party might choose a politician from the tribal or Dalit community in an election year.
Former Anuppur MLA Bisahulal Singh, party’s former Lok Sabha candidate from Betul Ajay Shah, former minister Surendra Singh and former Ujjain MP Premchand Guddu are prominent faces from these two communities.
Congress state chief Arun Yadav has also emerged as another strong candidate from the OBC community which was not been represented in Rajya Sabha from MP since 1952. Given the fact that OBCs forming 54% of MP population and CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan is being BJP’s poster boy from this community, the Congress could well pick Yadav.
In the assembly of 230, BJP has 166 MLAs, Congress 57, BSP four and three others.
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