Rajnath all set to make it to RS

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Rajnath Singh is all set to enter the Rajya Sabha from the state, sources said after a meeting of the BJP central election committee (CEC) at Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee’s residence.

Rawat faces no hurdle

NEW DELHI: Uttaranchal PCC president Harish Rawat would be the Cong nominee for RS from the state while sitting member Akhilesh Das has been renominated from UP for the Rajya Sabha elections later this month. Rawat will be elected unopposed as the BJP has announced that it will not contest the polls from Uttaranchal. (ENS)

Rajnath, currently a BJP general secretary, is tipped for a ministership at the Centre thereafter. His nomination is a foregone conclusion though the CEC drew a list of four candidates and left it to party president M Venkaiah Naidu to ultimately pick up the party nominees from amongst them. The others three are general secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, party spokesman Sunil Shastri and Shiv Kumar, a key aide to Vajpayee.

The BJP, with 88 members, has the strength to win two of the 10 seats in UP with 14 surplus votes left in hand.

This, only if there is no cross-voting. An additional seat, vacated by T.N. Chaturvedi after his appointment as the Karnataka Governor, is to be filled through a by-election.

If BSP leader and Chief Minister Mayawati allows the BJP to retain it, the party may get a third seat.

Though Naqvi and Shastri are strong contenders for the seats, Shiv Kumar is likely to over-ride their claims for the simple reason that he would not have been even considered if he wasn’t the PM’s candidate.