According to party sources, Sonia Gandhi, the former president of the Congress, will submit her nomination papers for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections from Rajasthan on Wednesday.
The 77-year-old leader has five terms as a Lok Sabha MP under his belt, but this will be his first term in the Upper House.
Sonia Gandhi’s son Rahul Gandhi, daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge are expected to accompany her to Jaipur so she can file her paperwork, according to sources close to the party.
Mrs. Gandhi, the Lok Sabha member for Rae Bareli, has decided not to run in the upcoming general elections. She was first elected in 1999, the year she assumed the presidency of the Congress, and has served as a Lok Sabha member for five terms.
“She is likely to file nomination for Rajya Sabha on Wednesday,” according to a source.
The elections for the 56 Rajya Sabha seats, which come from 15 states, will take place on February 27. The members will retire in April. Nominations must be submitted by February 15th.
There will be elections to fill three Rajya Sabha seats from Rajasthan, and the Congress is well-positioned to win one of them. After former prime minister Manmohan Singh serves out his six-year term in office, the position will become vacant.
After former prime minister Indira Gandhi, who served as a member of the Upper House from August 1964 to February 1967, she will be the second member of the Gandhi family to be elected to the Rajya Sabha.
No official declaration of candidates for the biennial Rajya Sabha elections has been made by the party.
2019 saw Mrs. Gandhi declare that this Lok Sabha election would be her final one.
There are many rumors that her daughter, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, may run from the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat now that Sonia Gandhi has decided not to run again.
The fact that Sonia Gandhi decided to run from Rajasthan rather than a southern state where the party is also very likely to win, like Telangana or Karnataka, is another indication that the first family of the Congress is not giving up on the Hindi heartland.
