"Am I Less Deserving?": Congress's Nagma On Being Denied Rajya Sabha Seat

A day after Congress announced its Rajya Sabha nominees, actor-turned-politician Nagma on Monday expressed discontent over not getting a berth in the Upper House of the parliament.

Taking to Twitter, Ms Nagma said, "Sonia Ji, our Congress president had personally committed to accommodating me in RS in 2003/04 when I joined Congress party on her behest. We were not in power then. Since then it is been 18 years, they did not find an opportunity. Mr Imran is accommodated in RS from Maharashtra. I ask am I less deserving."

"Our 18 years of penance also fell short in front of Imran Bhai," she said earlier.

The Congress party on Sunday announced the names of 10 candidates from seven states for the Rajya Sabha elections scheduled to take place on June 10. The names of many prominent leaders are missing from the list leading to voices of dissatisfaction rising in the party.

Randeep Singh Surjewala, Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari have been made candidates from Rajasthan. All these three leaders do not belong to Rajasthan.

Congress MLA from Sirohi in Rajasthan, Sanyam Lodha raised the question why no one has been nominated from Rajasthan. "The Congress party should tell what is the reason for not making any Congress leader/worker from Rajasthan, a candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections?" he wrote in a tweet on Sunday.

Pawan Kheda, who hails from Rajasthan, was a contender for Rajya Sabha in Congress. But his name is also not included in the list. After the release of the list, he tweeted, "Maybe there is something missing in my penance."

The Congress on Sunday opted for apparently lightweight candidates like Imran Pratapgarhi and Ranjeet Ranjan for the Rajya Sabha polls, contrary to speculation about accommodating veterans Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma. Pratapgarhi, the party's minority department chairperson and a poet from Uttar Pradesh, has been fielded from Maharashtra.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan BJP chief Satish Poonia also took a jibe at the Congress party. He tweeted in Hindi and wrote, "Congress's Chintan Shivir took place in Rajasthan. Now, look at another achievement of this thinking. Observe the quota of local candidates....without 'local' who will be 'vocal'..?"

The Congress party has fielded Rajeev Shukla, Ajay Maken, and Jairam Ramesh from Chhattisgarh, Haryana, and Karnataka respectively.

P Chidambaram, who is an MP in the Rajya Sabha, has once again been given a run from Tamil Nadu, while Ranjeet Ranjan has been fielded from Chhattisgarh. The party has fielded Vivek Tankha as a candidate from Madhya Pradesh.

Reacting to the list, co-incharge of Gujarat Congress Jitendra Baghel asked on Twitter: "Would you tell us how many of these candidates are from OBC/SC/ST?"

Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi has approved them as the Congress candidates to contest the biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha from the states, a statement read duly signed by General Secretary Mukul Wasnik.

Elections to 57 Rajya Sabha seats spread across 15 states will take place on June 10.