The Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday approved a list of six nominated members to the Rajya Sabha, including senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, former Test cricketer and BJP MP Navjyot Singh Sidhu and boxing legend Mary Kom among others.
Economist and former member of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council Narendra Jadhav has also been nominated for a Rajya Sabha seat, along with journalist Swapan Dasgupta and Malayalam actor Suresh Gopi.
These nominations to the Upper House are for achievers in various spheres of public life, and total 12 in number. As of now, there are seven vacancies among these 12, for which six names have been announced, and one kept in abeyance.
ADVERTISEMENT
“The government can nominate members in this category at anytime and it is not bound to an electoral cycle like the other seats,” said a senior official in the Rajya Sabha.
Of these, Mr. Sidhu’s nomination is politically most significant as there had been talk that the former cricketer was negotiating with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) just ahead of the Assembly polls in Punjab.
The AAP lacks a strong Sikh face in its leadership in the State, and sources suggested that Mr. Sidhu was in active talks with the party after falling out with the high command in the BJP on giving up his Amritsar seat to Arun Jaitley in the 2014 general elections.
ADVERTISEMENT
With this, things could get very interesting for the Congress in Punjab which is fighting the elections in the State under the leadership of Capt. Amarinder Singh, the current MP from Amritsar.
Dr. Swamy, who has been pursuing the National Herald case against the Gandhis is expected to bring in some aggression in the Treasury benches in a House where the numbers are stacked against them.
Ms. Kom is an internationally known pugilist, while Mr. Jadhav, apart from his economics writings is famous for penning a biography of his family, called Amchi Baap Ani Amhi in Marathi and was translated as Untouchables in English.
Actor Suresh Gopi’s name was the first to be out, nearly two days ago, in the middle of campaigning for the Kerala polls. He is considered close to the BJP.