Sonia set to enter Rajya Sabha in big Cong shift

Former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday filed her nomination papers as a Rajya Sabha candidate from Rajasthan, a first in her political career and marking the end of an era that saw the leader represent Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha, first as the parliamentarian from Amethi for one term and then from Rae Bareli for the next four.

- Saubhadra Chatterji

The day also saw the Congress announce nine other candidates for the February 27 biennial elections to the Upper House.

The party fielded treasurer Ajay Maken from Karnataka and former Union minister Renuka Chowdhury from Telangana. Among the sitting MPs, Abhishek Singhvi will step in from Himachal Pradesh and Syed Naseer Hussain, who is in charge of the Congress president's office, was named from Karnataka.

The party renominated its Bihar unit chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh and fielded the Maharashtra unit working president Chandrakant Handore from their respective states.

Another sitting MP GC Chandrasekhar was nominated from Karnataka while Ashok Singh of Gwalior was fielded from Madhya Pradesh. The youngest of the lot, M Anil Kumar Yadav who hailed from a Youth Congress background, was fielded from Telangana.

The elections to 56 seats in the Rajya Sabha is scheduled on February 27. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is expected to bag 31 seats, the Biju Janata Dal two and the YSR Congress party by three. The Congress is likely to retain 10 seats. Its partners in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, the Samajwadi Party, the Trinamool Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, are likely to win three, four and two seats, respectively.

Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, former chief minister Ashok Gehlot, Rajasthan unit chief Govind Singh Dotasra and leader of Opposition Tikaram Jully were present when Gandhi filed her nomination papers in the Rajasthan assembly building.