Patil, Soni in Cong first list

The other four candidates announced today are Shivraj Patil and Vijay Darda (both from Maharashtra) and Oscar Fernandes and B.K. Hariprasad (from Karnataka). The Congress is in a position to win 13 to 15 seats of the 65 vacancies in the Upper House that will be contested later this month. The party is certain of winning a seat each in Tamil Nadu, Uttaranchal and Karnataka, two each in Punjab and Maharashtra and six in Andhra Pradesh.

The two ‘‘maybes’’ are a second seat in Karnataka and a possible win from UP. Although the party has already announced the name of the second candidate — B.K.Hariprasad — from Karnataka, he will face a contest as the Congress does not have the numbers to see him through.

In Uttar Pradesh, the only way the Congress can win the seat is through a deal with one of the other parties. In case the on-off talks with Ajit Singh lead to his Rashtriya Lok Dal joining the UPA Government at the Centre, the Congress could get the party’s support for an RS seat in UP. A candidate needs 33 votes while the Congress has only 16 MLAs. With the support of the RLD (13), Left (2) and independents, however, a Congress candidate could win the seat. Salman Khursheed is a likely candidate from UP if such a deal works out. Satish Sharma, who lost the Sultanpur LS seat but is considered closed to Sonia Gandhi and her children, is tipped to enter the Upper House from Uttaranchal.

Punjab PCC chief H.S. Hanspal could be the second candidate from Punjab although Mohsina Kidwai — who is not keen on becoming a governor — is also trying her luck, sources said.

For the lone Tamil Nadu vacancy, the likely candidate is E.M.S. Nachiappan, the sitting MP from Sivaganga who gave up his claim to accommodate P.Chidambaram. Jayanti Natarajan’s name is also in the running, though Nachiappan could land the seat for ‘‘moral reasons’’, sources said.

Of the six seats from Andhra Pradesh, the Congress may spare one for the Telangana Rashtra Samiti.