Rajya Sabha Polls: Congress yet to finalise names, likely to field Sam Pitroda

He had also served as chairman of the National Knowledge Commission from 2005 to 2009 and as an adviser to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on public information infrastructure and innovation with the rank of a cabinet minister.

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Pitroda also founded National Innovation Council, motivating technical and management professionals to focus on innovation and his efforts resulted into setting up of start-up incubation centres at hundreds of technical and management institutes across the nation. (File)

The Congress is likely to field technocrat Sam Pitroda as one of its two candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls from Gujarat, scheduled to be held on March 23. The last date for filing of nominations is March 12. Pitroda, who is credited with telecom revolution in the country and worked as an adviser on technology missions to late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was actively involved in the last two Assembly elections in Gujarat as chairman of the party’s election manifesto committee.

He had also served as chairman of the National Knowledge Commission from 2005 to 2009 and as an adviser to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on public information infrastructure and innovation with the rank of a cabinet minister. Pitroda also founded National Innovation Council, motivating technical and management professionals to focus on innovation and his efforts resulted into setting up of start-up incubation centres at hundreds of technical and management institutes across the nation.

The party is, however, yet to officially announce its candidates. With a strength of 77 legislators in the Assembly, the party can win two of the four Rajya Sabha seats that have fallen vacant. According to party sources, the other name being considered for nomination to the Upper House from Gujarat is that of Congress leader Janardan Dwivedi.
Meanwhile, state Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki said that he was not in the race for Rajya Sabha nomination. Solanki had earlier not contested the Assembly elections last year.

On Tuesday, Solanki and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Paresh Dhanani had met party president Rahul Gandhi in Delhi for finalising the names. AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot, who is in-charge of party’s affairs in Gujarat, and other senior leaders were present in the meeting with Rahul. Sources said that the names of various aspirants were placed before Rahul Gandhi, but no final decision could be taken immediately.

According to the sources, the names of Solanki, former union minister Naran Rathwa and Tushar Chaudhary had also cropped up in the meeting as possible candidates, but Rahul reportedly rejected their names on the ground that he wants them to contest Lok Sabha elections from Gujarat in 2019. Though all of them had lost in the last Lok Sabha elections in 2014, they are considered strongest among the available Congress candidates for next year’s parliamentary elections.

Sources said that names of AICC general secretary Deepak Babaria, a close confidant of Rahul Gandhi, and spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil who played a vital role in the victory of Ahmed Patel in last year’s Rajya Sabha, were also discussed in the meeting.

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