The Congress on Monday nominated senior party leader and Gandhi family loyalist Rajani Patil to the Rajya Sabha bypoll from Maharashtra to be held on October 4. The seat had become vacant after the death of party leader Rajiv Satav. The tenure of the said Rajya Sabha seat is till April 2026.
Ms. Patil, 62, is currently the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for Jammu and Kashmir. She was sent to the Rajya Sabha in 2013 and had even won the best parliamentarian award then. In 1996, Ms. Patil had won the Beed Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra for the Congress. Ms. Patil is known to have close relations with the Gandhi family, especially party president Sonia Gandhi.
A number of names — including that of senior leader Mukul Wasnik, former union minister Milind Deora and widow of Rajiv Satav, Pradnya Satav — were in discussion for the candidature, according to party sources. Ms. Satav is now likely to be nominated to the State council.
In the State Assembly, the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress, is likely to have a easy victory in the 288-member house, with the support of more than 160 MLAs.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Opposition in the State, has decided to contest the bypoll. Sanjay Upadhyay, general secretary of the Mumbai unit of the BJP, would be the candidate, announced State BJP chief Chandrakant Patil. Mr. Patil said that the candidate would be filing his papers on September 22.
Apart from Maharashtra, Rajya Sabha bypolls will be held in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Puducherry.
