Speculations are rife that the Congress party will nominate Priyank Gandhi Vadra, the sister of former Congress President and daughter of the interim president, to the Rajya Sabha from either Chhattisgarh or Madhya Pradesh. As per reports, the party believes that the entry of Rahul Gandhi’s sister will augment the voice of the party in the Upper House of the Parliament.
The tenures of senior leaders of the Congress party, including Ambika Soni, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and Digvijaya Singh, are set to come to an end and Congress will fill these seats from the vacancies allotted to Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Jharkhand. The decision of the Congress party is likely influenced by the drubbing it received in the Delhi Assembly Elections on Tuesday.
The Lok Sabha currently has two members from the Nehru-Gandhi Parivar while the Rajya Sabha has none. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s formal introduction into politics came last year ahead of the General Elections when she was made the Congress-in-Charge of Eastern Uttar Pradesh. The party had not benefitted from her entry and it was reduced to a single seat in UP after Rahul Gandhi forfeited the family bastion of Amethi to Smriti Irani.
If the journalist closest to the Nehru-Gandhi Parivar, Pallavi Ghosh, is to be believed, there are leaders within the party who consider Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s nomination to the Rajya Sabha to be a ‘double-edged sword’. She reported, “While it may be a good strategy to have Rahul Gandhi lead the charge against ruling BJP in the Lok Sabha and Priyanka in the Rajya Sabha, it would leave the Congress open to shriller accusations of dynasty politics.”
Accusations of dynasty politics thrown at Congress hurt the party because it is true. With Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s entry to the Rajya Sabha, there will be three members from the Parivar in the Parliament of the country. Furthermore, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s daughter does not have any significant achievement in politics thus far and her biggest asset continues to be her family name.
