Rajya Sabha elections: Sonia Gandhi likely to file nomination from Jaipur

Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi is likely to file the Rajya Sabha nomination on Wednesday from Jaipur, sources said.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi are likely to travel with Sonia to Rajasthan's capital city where she will file her nomination, party sources said on Tuesday.

Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will take a daylong break on Wednesday, with the Congress leader re-joining it in Bihar’s Aurangabad on Thursday.

Three RS members are set to retire from Rajasthan by April 3, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to win two seats and the Congress one.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party (SP)’s Rajya Sabha candidates Jaya Bachchan, Ramji Lal Suman, and Alok Ranjan filed their respective nominations from Lucknow on Tuesday.

The SP re-nominated Bachchan for the fifth Rajya Sabha term.

She has been an RS member since 2004.

Suman, a Dalit leader, is a four-term Lok Sabha member. Ranjan is a former Indian Administration Service officer.

He served as the Uttar Pradesh chief secretary from 2014 to 2016. Upon his retirement, Ranjan joined the SP as the advisor of party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

The RS biennial elections are scheduled for February 27, with February 15 as the last date for filing nominations to fill 56 vacancies that will arise in April.

Of these ten RS members are retiring from Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP announced seven candidates on Sunday. In another development, senior SP leader Swami Prasad Maurya resigned as the party's national general secretary, saying he will continue to work to strengthen the SP without any post.

The Janata Dal (United) nominated former Bihar minister Sanjay Kumar Jha from the state.

On Tuesday, Biju Janata Dal (BJD)'s former legislators Debasish Samantray and Subhasish Khuntia filed their respective nominations for two of the three vacancies from the state.

The vacancies will arise with the retirement of the sitting MPs Prasanta Nanda and Amar Patnaik of the BJD and Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

The BJD is yet to announce its candidate for the third vacancy from the state. In 2019, the BJD supported Vaishnaw's candidature as the BJP candidate.