Wanted: RS seat for Anand Sharma -Governance Now

Wanted: RS seat for Anand Sharma

Is there a communication gap between PM, Sonia over the minister's election?

GN Bureau | March 19, 2010

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma

Commerce and Industries Minister Anand Sharma does not know when and from where he would get elected to the Rajya Sabha. And the reason is a bit of communication gap between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, according to party sources.

Sharma's Rajya Sabha term ends on April 2 and he has no chance of getting re-elected from his home state, Himachal Pradesh, as his seat will go to the BJP that is now in majority in the state.

Apparently, Manmohan Singh has objected to Gandhi's plans to get Sharma re-elected to the upper house from Madhya Pradesh. The prime minister has no grudge against Sharma. The sources said the PM was not even aware of Gandhi's word to the minister when he suggested nomination of Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Suresh Pachauri for one of the three Rajya Sabha seats that the party can win on the strength of its numbers in the state assembly.

The PM is unhappy with the present team of the parliamentary affairs ministry that messed up floor management during the just-concluded first part of the budget session. He wants Pachauri back in the Rajya Sabha to use his experience as parliamentary affairs minister.

Gandhi hates anybody attempting to scuttle any decision she takes and as such she did not like Manmohan Singh's suggestion to look for some other state from where Sharma can be elected, the source said.

Even after his current term ends, Sharma can continue as minister at least for six months, which should be a sufficient period for getting re-elected from any other state holding Rajya Sabha polls.

Sharma is, however, worried. Madhya Pradesh will have the first elections in the next round in June. If he has to opt for election from any other Congress-ruled state, it could be Maharashtra or Rajasthan in July or Haryana in August.

Pachauri, an engineer-turned-politician from Bhopal, finds himself a misfit in state politics after spending over two decades in Delhi as a Rajya Sabha member. He is therefore lobbying to get the Rajya Sabha seat and then excuse himself from running the party in Madhya Pradesh as PCC president.

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