New Delhi, June 15
Senior party functionaries R.K.Dhawan and Mohsina Kidwai figured in the list of Rajya Sabha candidates cleared by the Congress tonight. They are being fielded from Bihar and Chhattisgarh, respectively.
Ms Kiran Chaudhary, a former Delhi MLA, has been nominated from Haryana. Mr Satish Sharma, a close friend of the
Gandhis, who lost in the recent Lok Sabha elections, has been nominated from Uttaranchal.
Names of 10 candidates were cleared by Congress President Sonia Gandhi while the party’s nominees from Punjab, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu are yet to be decided on. The Congress does not have sufficient numbers in the Uttar
Pradesh.
Assembly, but it has decided to field its own candidate since it does not want to concede easy victory either to the Samajwadi Party or the BJP. The candidate, however, is yet to be named.
Though the choice of candidates from Andhra Pradesh are on expected lines, there was one surprise inclusion. Rashid Alvi, former BSP Lok Sabha MP, who joined the Congress on the election eve, has been named from here. Others include party strategist Jairam Ramesh, sitting MP Hanumanta Rao, media baron Girish Sanghi and party functionary J.D.Silam.
