RS bypoll: Congress to field candidate from Maharashtra

Mumbai, June 30: Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Manikrao Thakre today said the party would field a candidate from the state for the July 22 bye-election to Rajya Sabha.

The bye-election is necessitated by resignation of Prithviraj Chavan, who took over as chief minister of the state in November last year.

Chavan resigned from Rajya Sabha seat after he got elected unopposed to the state legislative council in April this year. As a two-term Rajya Sabha MP, Chavan”s tenure was to end in 2014.

Declining to reply whether Punjab Governor Shivraj Patil is frontrunner for the nomination, Thakre said the party would field a leader from the state itself.

To a question on whether the local candidate would come from outside the state, Thakre said, “The final decision will be taken by the party central leadership in a couple of days before the process of filing nomination starts on July 5.”

Apart from Patil, name of senior leader Rohidas Patil is also being speculated. Former MPCC chief Ranjit Deshmukh has written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi urging that Rohidas Patil be given an opportunity.

Earlier, names of deputy chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Madhya Pradesh Congress leader Suresh Pachauri, AICC general secretary Digivijay Singh were doing rounds. .

—PTI—