Face of Nation International : The election to the Rajya Sabha is indirect. The directly elected MLAs in the state assembly send their — and thereby the people’s — representatives to the Rajya Sabha. Since the number of MLAs are fixed in the state assemblies and secured by the anti-defection law, the Rajya Sabha elections have rather been a boring exercise for political observers, except for the issue of who gets the party tickets.
This is why most of the time, Rajya Sabha elections have seen candidates getting elected unopposed to the upper house of Parliament. The parties certainly winning the Rajya Sabha seat on account of number of MLAs would put up exactly the same number of candidates. In sum total, the final number of candidates of all parties equalled the total number of vacancies from the state. There was no race for snatching another’s seat in a Rajya Sabha election. No one would field extra candidates and hope a defection from the other camp.
A total of 37 candidates were elected to the Rajya Sabha in the same old manner this year, too. But this seems to be changing in recent times, often witnessing top leaderships of respective parties involve not only in candidate selection, but also in ensuring that the candidates get the votes on the day of election. The Rajya Sabha election of 2017 in Gujarat was a typical case of changing nature of the polls for the Upper House. There were three seats on offer and it was an easy calculation that the BJP would get two and the Congress one, on the basis of their respective strength in Gujarat Assembly. Only three candidates were in the fray. But just ahead of the polls, the Congress saw half-a-dozen MLAs resign, casting a doubt on whether the party’s high-profile candidate Ahmed Patel would win or not. He needed 44 votes and the Congress had 51 MLAs, plus the support of one NCP legislator. In the end, Patel got exactly 44, as at least one more Congress MLA voted against him. It was all blamed on the BJP, whose Amit Shah and Smriti Irani comfortably made it to the Rajya Sabha.
This time around, the trend of the Rajya Sabha election turning into a political battleground is more pronounced. Though 37 have been elected unopposed against the vacancy of 55 seats, extra players have been pushed into the game this year. These extra players have made the Rajya Sabha election a tight contest in some states, including Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Jharkhand.
In Madhya Pradesh, three seats are up for grabs. Going by original strength, the ruling Congress should get two and the BJP one. But then Jyotiraditya Scindia hit the Congress in Madhya Pradesh. Along with 22 MLAs, Scindia resigned from the Congress. The BJP fielded him in the Rajya Sabha election and named Sumer Singh Solanki as extra player in the game who also threatens the Kamal Nath government in the state. The Congress named its master political dribbler Digvijaya Singh and also Phool Singh Baraiya as extra player to match the BJP at its own game.
In Gujarat, five Congress MLAs resigned to make a contest out of a straightforward number equation. Gujarat has to elect four Rajya Sabha MPs — two each for the BJP and the Congress were expected. The resignations have made the Congress gasp for breath. While the Congress’s players were catching their breath, the BJP introduced an old Congress hand, Narhari Amin, as the extra player in the Rajya Sabha contest in Gujarat. It had already fielded Abhay Bharadwaj and Ramila Bara in the Rajya Sabha election. In the catch up game, the Congress fielded two of its senior leaders, Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki.
The spillover effect was seen in Rajasthan as well, where the Congress was set to win two Rajya Sabha seats. It fielded Congress general secretary KC Venugopal and Neeraj Dangi of the Youth Congress. The BJP was expected to win the third seat on offer — for which it had fielded Rajendra Gehlot. But the party named Onkar Singh Lakhawat as the extra player, creating a buzz and giving a few sleepless nights to Venugopal, a close aide of the Gandhis of the Congress. What the BJP has done in these three states, the Congress is trying in Jharkhand, where Rajya Sabha election is being held for two seats. In the Jharkhand Assembly, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the BJP should be winning one seat apiece easily.
But the Congress, which is part of the ruling alliance led by the JMM, named Shahzada Anwar as an extra player in the contest in its bid to make the election of BJP state president Deepak Prakash difficult, as JMM patron Shibu Soren is expected to easily win the polls.
A contest is also on in Andhra Pradesh, Manipur and Meghalaya. In Andhra Pradesh, the YSR Congress Party of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has an overwhelming majority and is likely to win all four seats. Considering this, the TDP of N Chandrababu Naidu had initially decided not to contest the election, but fielded a candidate at the last minute. It is more a reflection of rivalry between Reddy and Naidu than a real Rajya Sabha contest.
In Manipur, its titular king Sanajaoba Leishemba is the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls in the state which is currently represented by the BJP state president Kshetrimayum Bhabananda. It became an interesting contest after the Naga People’s Front (NPF) named Honreikhui Kashung as its candidate in addition to Tongbram Mangibabu of the Congress. The NPF is part of BJP-led ruling alliance. The Congress had won 28 of 60 seats in Manipur in 2017 polls. But the BJP, with 21 MLAs, formed the government with its allies. Later, eight Congress MLAs defected to the BJP. One of them, Thounaojam Shyamkumar, became a minister and was removed by the Supreme Court in an unprecedented ruling only yesterday (March 18). Now, the rest of the seven Congress MLAs say they are with the party itself.
In Meghalaya, the contest for the lone seat is between Kennedy Cornelius Khyiem of the Congress and Wanwei Roy Kharlukhi of the ruling National People’s Party of Conrad Sangma, the state’s chief minister. The Rajya Sabha came into existence in India with the idea of giving representation to collective wisdom of society in the legislative process. The Rajya Sabha was to be represented by elders. It was assumed that such wise persons may not be able to garner enough popular support to get elected to Parliament as the general election demands a lot of canvassing. This very nature of the Rajya Sabha election has undergone a sea change. (Source: Indiatoday News – India)
