NEW DELHI, MARCH 14: The first trial of strength between Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her detractors over allotment of party tickets for the biennial Rajya Sabha polls will take place on March 29. If liquor baron Vijay Mallya's entry in Karnataka has the potential of rocking the boat of one of the three Congress candidates (K Rehman Khan, K B Krishnamurthy and Ms Bimba Raikar), the presence of two Congress rebels - Rajni Ranjan Sahu and R K Anand - in Bihar could ensure the defeat of official candidate Phaguni Ram.Sahu is a trusted lieutenant of former Congress president Sitaram Kesri, who was denied renomination by Sonia Gandhi. Though Sonia had initially cleared Kesri's name and even spoken to Laloo Prasad Yadav in this regard, she changed her mind at the last minute.But infuriated Congressmen decided to field Sahu who quit the party and filed his papers as an Independent. Sahu is contesting for the lone byelection seat. Similarly, R K Anand, a leading criminal lawyer of Delhi, filed his papers on behalf of the JMM for one of the eight regular RS seats.In Andhra Pradesh, the TDP has decided to put up five candidates though the party can win only four seats on the basis of its strength in the Assembly. It is learnt that 41 of the 91 Congress MLAs who belong to the Reddy community are up in arms against Sonia Gandhi's decision to give the ticket to a new entrant film producer Dasari Narayan Rao and renominate K M Khan.The fate of another Sonia loyalist, Inder Khosla from UP, now hangs in the balance as a leading Delhi businessman, M M Agrawal, today filed his nomination papers as an Independent after quitting the Congress.Now there are 14 candidates in the fray for 11 RS seats. The BJP and the Samajwadi Party can win five and three seats, respectively, and they have put up an equal number of candidates. The BSP can win one seat but it has fielded two candidates. For the remaining two seats, B A Ramesh, M M, Agrawal, Jayant Malhoutra and Rajiv Shukla are in the race. A Congress ally, the Rashtriya Lok Dal of Ajit Singh, has decided to back industrialist Jayant Kumar Malhoutra while Agrawal is backed by the Jantantrik BSP.Vijay Mallya's nomination was proposed by 11 members of the Janata Dal (United). Asked whether he was jumping into the fray to boost the spirit of the elections, Mallya said ``my presence will cheer up the contest''.While the BJP has nominated former Union minister M Rajasekhara Murthy, a Congress rebel, N K Venkateshwar, general secretary of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, also filed his papers along with three other official nominees.The last date for withdrawals is March 16 and the polling if necessary would be held on March 29. Sonia loyalists have swung into action to persuade the rebels to withdraw from the race. Even some of the NDA candidates are keen on the Independents withdrawing to ensure smooth elections for the 58 RS seats.Another entrant from StateMUMBAI: In Maharashtra, the entry of Jawaharlal Goyal, brother of media baron Subhash Goyal for the March 29 biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha, has added lustre to the otherwise dull scene.The nomination filed by Goyal assumes significant political importance, since besides a section of the independents, Shiv Sena member and former Housing Minister Sureshdada Jain is one of his proposers.In a related development, one of the proposers of Goyal has submitted a letter to the Returning Officer that he had signed Goyal's nomination paper under pressure and as such he intends to withdraw his support to him.According to a senior official, once the nomination paper is submitted, such letters have no legal sanctity.
