Who will Congress, BJP field for RS from Gujarat?

Sunday, Mar 18, 2012

This weekend is that of fervent political speculations - over the Rajya Sabha candidates of Congress and BJP.

The terms of three BJP MPs -Vijay Rupani, Arun Jaitley and Kanjibhai Patel -and Congress’s Pravin Rashtrapal will be ending this month. While BJP late on Friday evening announced that Jaitley will be repeated, guesswork is rife on the other two candidates.

Names of Shivlal Vekariya or Bhavnaben Chikhalia from Saurashtra and Bhupendrasinh Chudasama or IK Jadeja are doing the rounds.

Another name is that of Ram Jethmalani’s son Mahesh, but party sources are not particularly keen on him.

The theory is that the combination of a Saurashtra candidate & Kshatriya has to be maintained. “There can’t be two candidates from outside,” a source said. While the others are known faces in political circles, Vekariya is a relatively low-key much respected veteran from Saurashtra. He was an elected BJP MP in 1991 but left with Shankersinh Vaghela and rejoined in 2002.

“But these are mere speculations, one can never tell, period. There can and will be a surprise. Modi is taking a call on these two candidates. Jaitley was central leadership’s decision. All we know is that it will be a very strategic decision keeping the forthcoming state and then LS elections in mind,” a source said.

BJP sources believe Modi strictly follows no-repeat policy. There has been buzz that Rupani might be repeated but sources believe his utility would be higher in managing elections for Saurashtra where BJP is on a sticky wicket.

Lack of clarity prevails in Congress as well. One theory doing the rounds is that Rashtrapal will be repeated with an eye on the party’s depleting Dalit vote bank.

Other probable candidates are former Sabarkantha MP Madhusudan Mistry and Shankersinh Vaghela. Mistry has risen to the top echelons of the party in the Congress working committee.
Though Vaghela heads the campaign committee of the party in Gujarat, he is believed to be desperate for a national role.