Jaipur: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may be the Congress choice as its candidate for the by-election for the Rajya Sabha seat, which has fallen vacant due to the death of the BJP Rajya Sabha member
Madan Lal Saini, who was also the state unit president. Saini, who died in Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences on Monday after a failed surgery, was cremated in his native village on Tuesday.
Saini was elected to the Rajya Sabha unopposed in April 2018. Thus Manmohan Singh, whose tenure in Rajya Sabha ended last Friday after a stint of 28 years in
the upper house, will re-enter the Rajya Sabha through
Rajasthan.
The Congress, in a House of 200, has 100 members and is supported by 13 Independents and six BSP MLAs. This number is enough to ensure the victory of the former Prime Minister, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Assam.
The by-election for the vacant Rajya Sabha seat will be held within three months through a notification to be issued by the Election Commission.
In Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha, the Congress needs 48 votes to clinch the by-election. Manmohan Singh, who was elected from Assam to the Rajya Sabha in 1991, served as the leader of the Upper House for 10 years and also as the leader of Opposition.
But Manmohan Singh is unable to get r-elected from Assam as the Congress has just 25 members in the House and the party requires 43 votes to win. The Congress has sufficient numbers in the Vidhan Sabhas of Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab, but there are no vacant seats in these states. The by-election for Rajya sabha's vacant seats of Odisha (four), Tamil Nadu (1), Bihar (2) and Gujarat (2) are due on July 5.
By Prakash Bhandari