The ruling Congress is likely to wrest an additional Rajya Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh where three seats in the Upper House of Parliament are falling vacant in April this year. The poll dates are likely to be announced in the first week of January, sources said.
The poll process for the three seats, falling vacant on April 9, 2020, has already started with appointment of principal secretary of State Assembly, A.P. Singh, as the returning officer. Singh was appointed the returning officer by the Assembly Speaker, N.P. Prajapati, after getting a communiqué in this regard from the Election Commission of India. The appointment information has been sent out to the Election Commission, which is likely to issue the notification and schedule for the Rajya Sabha election soon.
The terms of three MPs—Digvijaya Singh of the Congress and Prabhat Jha and Satyanarayan Jatia of BJP—are expiring on April 9 and elections will likely be held ahead of this date.
Given the current seat arithmetic in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, winning two out of three Rajya Sabha seats looks probable for the Congress. Each candidate requires a minimum of 58 votes in the 230-member Assembly to win a Rajya Sabha seat.
The Congress has 114 MLAs in the state (following the death of Jaura MLA Banwari Lal Sharma), while the BJP has 108 members. However, four independents (out of whom one is a minister in the Kamal Nath cabinet), two Bahujan Samaj Party MLAs and one Samajwadi Party member are also supporting the Congress. This will make it easy for the Congress to wrest an additional seat to the Rajya Sabha from the state, political observers say.
Scindia likely to get nomination
There are indications that ex-Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia might get one of the Congress nominations for the Rajya Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh. Scindia, who lost the Lok Sabha polls from his family bastion of Guna earlier this year, has been pushing for the post of Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee president, but the appointment has not come yet.
Sources said that the Congress high command might 'adjust' Scindia to a Rajya Sabha seat and give the post of MPCC president to some other leader to keep the power equations balanced.
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Ex-chief minister Digvijaya Singh is likely to get renomination for the other seat in the Congress kitty, sources added. Meanwhile, the names of former Lok Sabha MP Meenakshi Natarajan, former leader of opposition Ajay Singh and ex-MLA Deepak Saxena, who vacated his Assembly seat for Kamal Nath, are also doing the rounds as possible candidates for the Rajya Sabha seat.
