political lobbying
increases
Get ready for some political
battles. The upcoming months of April and June will see 76 members of the Rajya
Sabha retiring. The Congress and BJP both have to decide whether they want
grassroots, heavyweight political leaders or those who are good at “managing
Delhi” only. The first signal of the changing political scenario will be felt
when nominated members Mani Shankar Aiyar, Javed Akhtar, B Jayshree, Mrinal
Miri and Balachandra Mungekar retire in March. The ministers who will retire
this year from the Upper House are YS Chowdhary of the TDP and Nirmala
Sitharaman, M Venkaiah Naidu, Piyush Goel, Suresh Prabhu, Chaudhary Birender
Singh and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, all from the BJP. Naidu, who is a member from
Karnataka, would like to come back from Andhra Pradesh. The total dynamics of
the seat arrangement will change in Uttar Pradesh as there are not many MLAs
from the BSP and Congress; the SP will get most of the seats. In Bihar, Nitish
Kumar will have to take some crucial decisions as his three comrades, Sharad
Yadav, KC Tyagi and Pawan Varma, are retiring this year. As per the state
arithmetic, the JD (U) can get only two seats so one wonders who will be
ejected. The Congress too will be in a spot as its deputy leader in the Rajya
Sabha, Anand Sharma, is also retiring from Rajasthan this year. Though Ram
Jethmalani is also retiring from Rajasthan, he does not have a chance in the
given political set-up. Anand Sharma’s case will be interesting as he is not a
mass leader. He spends most of his time attending the Delhi durbar. He is a
persona non grata in his own state, Himachal Pradesh, as he is at loggerheads
with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. The Congress has to decide his utility
factor. Tough choices ahead.
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