Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad are both set to enter the Rajya Sabha from Jammu and Kashmir. Congress president Sonia Gandhi cleared their names and both the Congress leaders would be filing their nomination papers on Tuesday.
While the Congress is contesting 2 out of the 4 Rajya Sabha seats from the state, the third seat has gone to the National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah even as there is a huge division over the fourth seat with the NC trying its luck with a second candidate, the Peoples Democratic Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party both likely to also field candidates.
The two congress seats are clear while Farooq's seat is also clear but there would be an election for that seat even as the options are all open on the fourth seat.
If the PDP and the BJP come together, with their 21 and 11 MLAs respectively, they have a clear winner on their hands in terms of the fourth seat but that would mean taking crucial political decisions which may not suit both the parties either in the short term or the long term gains. The elections would be held on February 13.
Ghulam Nabi Azad who is already an member of the Legislative Assembly, is likely to be brought to the All India Congress Committee with a significant responsibility in the coming days, as his J&K chapter appears to be over for the time being.
