As the date for the elections to the Upper House of the Parliament, the Rajya Sabha is approaching, different parties have either finalised their candidates or are on the verge of declaring the names of the chosen ones, Jyotiraditya Scindia, being the most recent and arguably the most prominent one as he is fielded by the BJP.

It is well known that Scindia is the turncoat from Congress and was apparently snubbed by the Grand Old Party.

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So who are the probable candidates on Congress’ list?

According to the sources, a total of 12 people have been nominated by the Congress for the RS polls scheduled for Thursday, 26 March.

They are:

– Deepender Singh Hooda, son of Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the former Chief Minister of Haryana.

– Bharatsinh Solanki, son of Madhavsinh Solanki, former External Affairs Minister and four-time Gujarat Chief Minister.

– Rajeev Satav, son of former Maharashtra minister Rajnitai Satav.

– Phulo Devi Netam, daughter of Arvind Netam, former union minister and former member of the Lok Sabha.

– KTS Tulsi, senior Supreme Court advocate who has represented Robert Vadra in the land scam case and is considered to be close to the Gandhi family. Interestingly, Tulsi was nominated for the Rajya Sabha in February 2014 on the advice of the then Congress-led UPA government.

– Digvijaya Singh, the two time Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, is also pipped to be in the list. Singh has drawn controversies for his rather controversial statements that the BJP and Sangh Parivar marked as anti-Hindu and against women. A veteran Congressman with proximity to the Gandhis; these two reasons are being attributed to his candidature.

– KC Venugopal, another party old hand who represented the Alappuzha Constituency, Kerala as Lok Sabha MP. He is the General Secretary of AICC in-charge of Karnataka. He was the Minister of State for Civil Aviation & Ministry of Power in the UPA Government.

If we take a look at the backgrounds of a few candidates then it would make for an amusing study, to put it in the journalistic parlance.

To start with, KTS Tulsi has no political background and his only qualification being cited is his closeness with the Gandhi family.

Rajeev Satav has the distinction of wresting the Kalamnuri Assembly seat in Marathwada region from the Shiv Sena after 20 years in the 2009 elections when he defeated Subhash Wankhede. Satav won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Hingoli constituency in Maharashtra, but it is alleged that he refused to contest the 2019 elections from the same seat, in a way giving a walk over to the opponents.

KC Venugopal did not fight the LS polls from Alappuzha from where he was elected twice. Now, he is trying to enter the Parliament through the RS.

Deepender Singh Hooda lost a high profile election from Rohtak in May 2019, hence he too is being given a chance to enter the Parliament as member of the Upper House.

Reportedly, Congress have joined hands with All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) of Assam led by Badruddin Ajmal in proposing a joint candidate from the state.

Political observers say that the names suggest a pattern of dynasts, party favourites, and even ideology differences. The major parameters are dynasts, Gandhi family loyalists, un-electables, election losers, and controversial figures.

If the observations are to be summed up, this clearly shows edging out the old, honest, and hardworking Congressmen and women in favour of dynasts with big surnames.

Being close to the ‘First Family’ is enough!