Congress not confident of getting magic figure

Bhopal, Mar 13: Madhya Pradesh Congress is optimistic but not confident of getting the requisite number of legislators in its favour for winning its own candidate in Rajya Sabha elections scheduled on March 20. Former Advocate General Vivek Tankha is likely to be Congress candidate.

However, Tankha is weighing options because he does not want to be a loser. He has reportedly asked Leader of the Opposition Jamuna Devi that he should reasonably be convinced before going to contest the election. The ruling BJP has already decided to field three of its candidates in the Rajya Sabha and declared their names, while Congress is still deliberating to field former Advocate General Vivek Tankha. BJP has 166 MLAs in the house and it needs eight more legislators to get the third seat in the upper house. Similarly, Congress has 41 MLAs and it needs 17 more MLAs. Other political parties have 20 MLAs, out of which, Congress claimed that it would have support of at least 17 MLAs without any hassle.

Former State Congress General Secretary Manak Agrawal said that Congress would easily get the support from other parties, while the ruling BJP would face problems in getting support from eight MLAs. On the contrary, other political parties have increased heartbeat of both Congress and BJP leaders, as they have decided to field an independent candidate. Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA Sunilam told that the parties have already decided not to support candidates of BJP or Congress. “We would field an independent candidate and he could get support from BJP and Congress legislators,” he added. The last date for filing nomination March 15, and Congress sources claimed that their candidate would be declared on Friday. Similarly, parties other than Congress and BJP are also likely to declare their independent candidate by Friday evening.