A meeting between veteran Congress leader Kapil Sibal and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav is underway, said sources on Wednesday. The ‘G-23’ member may be given Rajya Sabha ticket from SP.
The filing nomination for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections began on Tuesday. Top parties, including the ruling BJP and main opposition SP, are in the process of finalizing their list of candidates.
According to a report in The New Indian Expressthe Samajwadi Party is confident of winning three seats. Of these one each may be given to RLD chief Jayant Chaudhury and Sibal.
The report quoted its highly-placed sources as saying that the SP is scheduled to convene a meeting of its MLAs an MLCs this weekend to take a final call on candidates for the three seats. Among the 11 seats that are up for grabs, five are held by the BJP, three by SP, two by BSP and one by Congress.
If Jayant Chaudhury makes it to Rajya Sabha, he will return to Parliament after eight years as he had represented Mathura in Lok Sabha from 2009-2014.
Meanwhile, Sibal is believed to have a warm relationship with many SP leaders, including Akhilesh Yadav and Azam Khan. He recently represented jailed Khan in Supreme Court and helped him secure interim bail.
He also helped Akhilesh retain the party’s bicycle symbol in 2017 when the first family was locked in an intense family feud, probably the worst in the SP’s existence.
The report in CUT further quoted its sources as saying that the Samajwadi Party is seeking to reciprocate for the help Sibal extended to Azam Khan in his legal battle.
(details awaited)
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