Rahul Gandhi Talks Tough With Stalin For Two Rajya Sabha Seats, Will the Gamble Pay Off?

The Congress leadership is apparently worried about losing numbers in the biennial elections to 37 Rajya Sabha seats to be held on March 16. Its worry is that it may not be able to return as many of its MPs to the House from states like Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. The party which currently has 27 Rajya Sabha is worried that any reduction in numbers could effectively cost it the office of the Leader of Opposition in the Upper House, a position currently held by Mallikarjun Kharge. Incidentally, his term is coming up for renewal in June. The anxiety to maintain LoP status has made the Congress push for an extra Rajya Sabha seat with its allies in TN or Maharashtra. In TN, of the four vacancies, the Congress is the DMK to share 2.  DMK has offered one seat to DMDK leader Premalatha’s son/kin. It is apparently willing to offer one seat to the Congress. As for the second seat it is not clear at this stage. Rahul is keen to accommodate his close aide Meenakshi Natrajan — a resident of Madhya Pradesh — from TN now. He can’t wait for Digvijay Singh’s vacancy which will happen in June. The Congress is demanding a second from Stalin for Pawan Khera. Stalin, it seems, is keen to accommodate the former The Hindu editor N Ram. It is being said that the Congress is not worried about limitations of the DMK and is very keen about reaching its target of two RS seats. In fact, AICC Tamil Nadu in-charge Girish Chodankar told DMK MP Kanimozhi that his party wants more assembly seats than the previous election. TN Congressmen are wondering why is the party talking tough for RS seat? Is something else cooking?