Instead of introspection, accountability and disciplinary action in the wake of the Bihar verdict, the Congress leadership is busy in a self-serving reward exercise to shortlist party president Mallikarjun Kharge and several top AICC functionaries for coveted Rajya Sabha berths.
An informal but powerful group of party leaders known as "Jai Jagat" are set to get a large chunk of Rajya Sabha seats. Leaders known for their left of centre, social justice and inclusion-oriented politics, such as Sachin Rao, Meenakshi Natrajan, Krishna Allavaru and Bhunwar Jitendra Singh, who like to sign off as "Jai Jagat" in all modes of in-house communications, are hoping to be in the upper house with a degree of confidence and sureness.
Sachin Rao is a communication expert and a member of the Congress Working Committee, while Natrajan, a former Lok Sabha MP from Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, worked with Rahul when he was the All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary way back in 2007. She is currently looking after the party affairs in Telangana. Krishna was the Congress pointman in Bihar, while Jitendra Singh is looking after party affairs in Assam.
Who Holds The Cards? No Surprises Here
The biannual Rajya Sabha polls are due early next year, but jockeying has begun in full earnest with Rahul Gandhi and 10, Janpath, holding all the cards and leverage to extend patronage. Within Congress circles, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's claim of the grand old party heading for some kind of split of division is inviting derisive backlash, with some leaders pointing at PM Modi's lack of understanding about the principal opposition party.
In a nutshell, the Congress is expected to lose six Rajya Sabha seats in April 2026 but is likely to win nine seats in the upper house. It is all set to net three seats from Karnataka, two from Telangana, one each from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
Leading these returnees in the house is 83-year-old Mallikarjun Kharge, who is also leader of the opposition (LoP) in the Rajya Sabha. Kharge's term as the Congress president ends in October 2027, so the Congress leadership - the Gandhis, that is - are 'duty bound' to renominate him in the Rajya Sabha.
Kharge, Digvijaya Singh and Shakti Singh Gohil are the key prominent leaders completing their term in April 2026. All three of them are aspiring to return to the house of elders. While Kharge is a certainty from Karnataka, Digvijaya, a politician among the politicians, is facing a challenge from Rahul Gandhi's protege: Natrajan, a member of the 'Jai Jagat' gang.
Jockeying In Himachal And Rajasthan
From Himachal, veteran Anand Sharma is hoping to be rewarded. But the buzz in Indira Bhawan and at 24, Akbar Road is that Pratibha Singh could be the official party candidate from Himachal. Anand is counting on AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh to push for his candidature. Anand had recently resigned as the head of AICC's foreign affairs department, much against the wishes of him and Jairam Ramesh. Salman Khurshid is the new head of the AICC's foreign affairs department and an aspirant for a Rajya Sabha berth from Telangana.
The informal and in-house contest for the lone Rajasthan berth is most intriguing. As luck would have it, Pawan Khera is being backed by former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, but he is pitted against Bhunwar Jitendra Singh, considered to be close to Rahul. While both claim to be part of the 'Jai Jagat' group, the tussle for Rajasthan has a history. In September 2023, Rahul Gandhi made a strong case for Sachin Pilot to become the Chief Minister of Rajasthan, but Ashok Gehlot blocked it in the most brazen and defiant manner. Jitendra Singh, currently looking after party affairs in poll-bound Assam, is seen as a possible successor to KC Venugopal as the next General Secretary in charge of the party organisation.
Other prominent faces vying for Rajya Sabha berths are Bhupesh Baghel, K Raju, Supriya Shrinate,, Sunil Kanagolu and TS Singh Deo. Most of these leaders have a history of delivering failures in the respective state elections they supervised. But in the Congress, loyalty, left-liberal type political correctness and focus on social justice-inclusion discourse seems to be paramount.
Will Congress Leadership See Reason? No?
Some wise people in the Congress are making a feeble attempt to make Rahul Gandhi see reason. They want Rahul to look at local and regional leaders for Rajya Sabha seats. According to this school of thought, in the past, the Congress ignored the contribution of local leadership and gave importance to leaders from other states while considering Rajya Sabha seats.
KC Venugopal, for instance, after losing his Lok Sabha seat from Kerala in 2019, had taken the Rajya Sabha route from Rajasthan. At present, Sonia Gandhi, Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Surjewala and Pramod Tiwari are Rajya Sabha members from Rajasthan. Within Congress circles, Ahmed Patel is credited with bringing KC Venugopal closer to Rahul. Legend has it that when KC Venugopal became Member of Parliament, Patel, then political secretary to United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, got him seated next to Rahul in the Lok Sabha on the premise that a non-descriptive MP from Kerala would have least influence on the Gandhi scion. The reverse happened. By 2019, Patel used to describe Venugopal as 'his mistake'.
AICC treasurer Ajay Maken, who had lost the earlier Rajya Sabha election to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-backed independent candidate Kartikaye Sharma from Haryana, eventually won from a "safe" seat in Karnataka. Rajiv Shukla and KTS Tulsi are presently Rajya Sabha MPs from Chhattisgarh, Abhishek Manu Singhvi from Telangana, and Imran Pratapgarhi from Maharashtra.
Learning Challenges
By giving Rajya Sabha seats to outsiders who are non-performers in their own states and have failed miserably in either bringing the party to power or even getting enough seats in the Upper House, the Congress has time and again undermined the contribution of local leaders who drive the success of the party in their respective states.
Turns out, you really can't teach an old dog new tricks.
(Rasheed Kidwai is an author, columnist and conversation curator)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
