Hectic parleys in Cong on RS nomination,Shiela among probables

Former Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit is among probables for a Rajya Sabha seat either from Himachal Pradesh or Haryana as Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi held consultations on the issue today.
With January 28 being last date for filing nominations, the Congress leadership has to finalise the names by Monday.
Sonia and Rahul held consultations with AICC general secretaries in-charges of concerned states.
They were earlier asked to come to the the meeting after holding consultations with the PCC Presidents and CLP leaders on the possible candidates.
Due to the dwindling numbers, Congress can have two seats to the upper house from Maharashtra and Assam and one each from Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

With the party's debacle in Rajasthan in the recent Assembly polls and earlier in Tamil Nadu, the party cannot have even a single member from these states.

Former Mahila Congress chief Prabha Thakur and former Union Minister Jayanthi Natarajan are the retiring members from these two states. Union Minister G K Vasan is also among the retiring members.
The talk in Maharashtra is that retiring members Murli Deora and Hussain Dalwai could be renominated and so appears to be the case for party veteran Motilal Vora from Chhattisgarh. Former Chief Minister of Manipur Rishang Keishing is also among the retiring members.

Maharashtra tops the list with the poll to be held for seven RS seats from the state. It is followed by Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh (six each), West Bengal and Bihar (five each), Odisha and Gujarat (four each), Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan (three each), Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand (two each) and Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Meghalaya (one each).
The talk is also that Mahila Congress chief Shobha Oza could also get a nomination from Madhya Pradesh. She will not be contesting the next Lok Sabha polls, the party sources said.
The last date for filing nomination for the poll is January 28, scrutiny will be held the next day. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is January 31 and the poll will be held on February 7.

Dikshit has served as Delhi Chief Minister as 15 years.
While there have been reports that local leaders from the two states are aspiring for the nomination, central leaders have been insisting that Haryana and Himachal units have authorised party chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul to decide the issue.