Cong fields Anand Sharma, Raj Babbar; suspense continues for Amethi, Rae Bareli

Sharma, 71, will be fighting his first Lok Sabha poll from Kangra constituency of Himachal Pradesh after four terms in the Rajya Sabha. He retired from the Rajya Sabha in 2022 but the party did not renominate him. He was also one of the key faces of the rebel or G23 group in the party that sought changes in the party in 2020.

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The now-defunct G23 group had written a letter for reforms to then Congress president Sonia Gandhi in August 2020, triggering the biggest internal rumblings within the party in recent times. But after several G23 leaders quit the party and after Mallikarjun Kharge announced his candidature for the party president’s post, the remaining rebels came around to support Kharge.

“It is the Pranab Mukherjee moment for Sharma. Mukherjee was in the Rajya Sabha for five terms before he won a Lok Sabha election from West Bengal in 2004. Similarly, Sharma has got his chance now,” said a senior Congress MP from Rajya Sabha.

Raj Babbar, who started his political career with the Janata Dal, shifted to the Samajwadi Party (SP) before joining the Congress. He was a three-term Lok Sabha MP and a two-term Rajya Sabha lawmaker. The former Uttar Pradesh Congress chief had won from both Agra and Firozabad. Babbar’s candidature was backed by former Congress chief minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, even as another section of the party in the state opposed his nomination.

Babbar’s ticket from Gurugram also underlines the clout of Hooda in Haryana, where assembly elections are due later this year. “This shows the clout of Hooda. If we want to win Haryana, we have no other option,” said a senior Congress leader.

The Congress also fielded Satpal Raizada from Himachal Pradesh’s Hamirpur and Bhushan Patil, one of the vice presidents of the party’s Mumbai unit, from Mumbai North.

The party, however, is yet to announce its candidates from Amethi and Rae Bareli. The last date of filing nominations for the two seats is on May 3. A senior leader who recently met Rahul Gandhi said, the latter only smiled when party leaders told him that the media’s entire focus is on the possible Congress candidates in the two seats.

Last week, the members of the Congress’ Central Election Committee (CEC) unanimously supported a proposal moved by the party’s Uttar Pradesh in-charge Avinash Pandey to field former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi from the two Gandhi family bastions, Amethi and Raebareli, said two members of the poll panel.

While former chief Sonia Gandhi did not say a word, the decision on Amethi and Raebareli have been left to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge by the CEC. The apex poll body of the party also discussed the remaining five seats of Punjab.

At the meeting, Avinash Pandey, the general secretary for UP was called in and he read out a proposal that said Rahul and Priyanka should be fielded from the two seats in UP, provided they are willing to contest.

In the run up to the polls, Rahul Gandhi has said at least twice that he will abide by the party’s decision. Priyaka Gandhi has so far maintained complete silence on her electoral prospects.

The Congress has got 17 of the 80 seats in UP in its alliance with the Samajwadi Party. The Congress has announced the other 15 candidates but held back the decision on Amethi and Raebareli.

• ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  

  Saubhadra Chatterji is Deputy Political Editor at the Hindustan Times. He writes on both politics and policies.