Congress to back Mamata Banerjee's candidate for Rajya Sabha post

New Delhi: The election for Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson promises to be a thriller, with the Congress deciding in principle to back a candidate from any other Opposition party to keep the BJP out, unlike during the presidential election last year when it had insisted on having its own candidate Meira Kumar to represent the Opposition.

Sources said Trinamul Congress leader Sukhendu Shekhar Roy had emerged as the frontrunner with his party chief Mamata Banerjee pushing strongly for him. Banerjee has been lobbying for her candidate with all Opposition parties, including even fence-sitters like the Biju Janata Dal, that has the crucial numbers to tilt the polls. 

Sources told this newspaper that a senior TMC leader had been in touch with a bureaucrat known to be very close to Odisha CM and BJD chief Navin Patnaik to seek his support. The BJD, which has nine MPs, might decide to remain equidistant from both the BJP and Congress and abstain, bringing down the winning mark in the election.

The TMC chief has also sought support for her candidate from four Opposition chief ministers — AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal, CPI(M)’s Pinarayi Vijayan, TDP’s N. Chandrababu Naidu and JD(S)’ H.D. Kumarawamy — when they met at the Niti Aayog governing council meeting. She has also been in touch with TRS leader K. Chandrasekar Rao.

Shortly after meeting the CMs on June 16 this month, senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel called on Banerjee and both leaders are learnt to have discussed the issue. 

Sources in the Congress said that since then the party leadership, including its president, had discussed the matter and decided to go along with any non-Congress candidate to keep the BJP at bay. The Trinamul Congress has, however, officially denied that Roy’s name had been finalised. The Opposition parties are likely to meet in the first week of July after the incumbent, P.J. Kurien, retires on July 2.

A senior Opposition leader said the high tea hosted by Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu on July 1 for Kurien would be the first informal meeting point for the Opposition leaders. As on July 1, the Congress will have 50 seats and the BJP 69. The NDA bloc will have 104 seats in total, while the Opposition will have 117. This is excluding the TRS, BJD, PDP and YSR Congress. The last time that an election was held for Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson was in 1992. 

Amit Shah to discuss seat-sharing with Nitish

Amid reports of growing unease over seat sharing within the NDA in Bihar, the BJP has decided to resolve the issue by organising a meeting between party president Amit Shah and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. BJP insiders said that Shah will visit Patna on July 12 during his ‘Sampark for Samarthan’ campaign when he is expected to meet Nitish. Party insiders say that “preliminary round of discussion over seat sharing and other issues is likely to take place during the meeting next month”. The meeting also assumes significance because there has been simmering unease within the NDA over the issue since the last one month. Nitish’s telephonic conversation with RJD chief Lalu Yadav had also created a flutter in political circles and gave rise to speculations regarding a possible realignment of two parties once again.

BJP aims to double tally in Assam

The ruling BJP has started working on a strategy to win all the 14 Lok Sabha seats by fine-tuning its alliance with regional Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) in Assam. Assam BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Dass said that the NDA wants to win all the Lok Sabha seats from Assam in the next   general elections due in 2019.