Today in Politics: Sonia Gandhi to file RS poll nomination, INDIA alliance future hangs in the balance

With a day left for the deadline to submit nomination papers for the February 27 Rajya Sabha elections, the Congress is most likely to unveil the rest of its list on Wednesday.

As Manoj CG reported, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi will stay on in Parliament but from the Upper House, representing Rajasthan. Sonia will be in Jaipur on Wednesday to file her nomination and is likely to be accompanied by her son and party MP Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. Her Raebareli Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh will most likely go to her daughter and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

While this in a way will mark the end of a chapter for the party, it will be interesting to see who else finds space in the Congress list. Among those reported to be angling for a Rajya Sabha berth is former Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath under whose leadership the party received a drubbing in the state elections in December. Of the 56 Rajya Sabha seats up for grabs, the Congress is expected to retain at least nine, including one from Madhya Pradesh.

No end to INDIA alliance’s troubles

In the larger scheme of things, the Rajya Sabha elections are unlikely to be at the top of the Congress’s priority list at the moment given that the future of the Opposition INDIA alliance looks bleaker by the day.

The political experiment that started in June 2023 has faltered in recent weeks with the exits of the JD(U) and the RLD, the refusal of Mamata Banerjee and Bhagwant Mann to agree to a seat-sharing pact with the Congress in West Bengal and Punjab, and now the AAP’s offer of just one seat to the grand old party in Delhi. The AAP also announced a candidate each from Goa, and that too from a