Congress out of race but Kapil Sibal may still get RS nomination, courtesy SP; JMM also keen

New Delhi: Congress leader Kapil Sibal may have lost place in good books of top Congress leadership but he is not of race for the Rajya Sabha. Reports suggest that he could be fielded as RS nominee by Samajwadi Party (SP) or Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) as the grand old party hasn’t numbers on its side.

Kapil Sibal, the leading voice of ‘Groups of 23’, dissenter group of Congress, may get re-elected to the Upper House of Parliament with support of SP or JMM. In 2016, he was elected on Congress ticket and was backed by ruling SP. However, this Assembly elections, Cong got routed to mere 2 seats in 403-member assembly.

The election for 11 Rajya Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh will happen soon and hectic parleys have begun for finalizing the names of contenders. As per Assembly strength, BJP has comfortable numbers to send 7 members while SP can send easily send 3.

Sibal, Jayant & Dimple are frontrunners

Among those emerging as frontrunners of SP ticket are Kapil Sibal and RLD chief Jayant Choudhary. Name of Akhilesh’s wife Dimple Yadav has also been proposed by some party members.

Sibal represented Azam Khan in Supreme Court and also secured him bail. During the family feud, it was Sibal who secured the bicycle poll symbol for Akhilesh faction post party split.

Muslim leaders are also clamouring for SP ticket to a Muslim face so that party’s connect with minorities remains firm & solid, however, there is yet to consensus on the issue. On the other hand, SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar is also understood to be in talks for RS membership.

Why JMM keen on RS seat for Sibal

Congress is in coalition with the JMM in Jharkhand. Being a smaller party in alliance, it doesn’t have enough say.

But, Sibal has been involved in couple of court cases, pertaining to JMM leaders and the party may could just think of reciprocating the favour.