New Delhi
Former Rajya Sabha Opposition leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, 72, will be back in the Rajya Sabha whenever the elections are held by the EC to fill 13 vacancies in the House. The EC has presently put on hold the Rajya Sabha biennial elections due to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, but it may lift the ban in view of the recent improvement in the situation.
The Congress has already sounded Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK to spare a seat for Azad in the byelections for 3 seats from the state. The vacancies were created due to death of AIADMK MP Mohammedjan in March and due to the resignation of KP Munusamy and R Vaithiyalingam as MPs after both were elected as MLAs in the recent assembly polls. The DMK alliance’s present strength in the assembly gives it an opportunity to corner all the 3 vacant RS seats whenever the by-elections are held. The biennial elections in J&K are on the hold as there is no Assembly in the UT. Azad was last elected to the RS in 2015 from J&K.
