Correspondent
NewsBits.in
Bhopal: Former additional solicitor general of India Vivek Tankha has been announced as the Congress Party’s candidate for Rajya Sabha. Three RS seats in MP would fall vacant shortly and Congress hopes of retain the one seat it holds.
Tankha, a Supreme Court lawyer, was Congress candidate from Jabalpur seat in Lok Sabha polls of 2014, but lost to Rakesh Singh of BJP by a huge margin of 2.8 lakh. The party is now giving him a chance to get elected to the upper house of the parliament.
The Congress also declared its candidates for RS from other states including former union minister P Chidambaram from Maharashtra, Kapil Sibal from Uttar Pradesh and Jairam Ramesh from Karnataka.
The BJP is yet to open its cards on RS candidature from Madhya Pradesh, but sources said it is likely to contest all three seats.
Among over a dozen, the name of Bollywood actor Anupam Kher, who has remained in news lately for his pro-BJP comments, is making rounds as RS candidate of BJP from Bhopal. Name of union minister Venkaiah Naidu is also making rounds in this context.
Names of Zee TV owner Subhash Chandra and BJP leader Sudha Malaiya (wife of state finance minister Jayant Malaiya) have also emerged.
The state BJP unit has already forwarded a panel of dozen names to the central leadership for finalization of candidates. The names are likely to be announced before May 31, sources said.
Among theother names included in the panel, according to BJP sources, are Anil Dave, Kailash Vijayvargiya, Vikram Verma (former union minister), Raghunandan Sharma, Krishna Murari Moghe, Ramkrishna Kusmaria, Bhagwat Sharan Mathur, Vinod Gothia, Banshilal Gurjar, Dheeraj Pateria and Deepak Vijayvargiya.
