Published Jun 04, 2026 | 7:59 PM ⚊ Updated Jun 04, 2026 | 8:14 PM
Pawan Khera, Mansoor Ali Khan and Mallikarjun Kharge.
Synopsis: It was earlier said that Andhra Pradesh Congress president YS Sharmila, the daughter of the late Congress leader YS Rajasekhara Reddy, would be considered to the Rajya Sabha. However, indications are that the party would favour Khera, who maintained good relations with former Delhi Chief Minister, the late Sheila Dikshit, as well as the Gandhis.
The Congress party is likely to renominate AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.
Elections to four Rajya Sabha seats set to fall vacant will be held on 18 June. Besides Kharge, the terms of Narayana Koragappa, Iranna Kadadi and HD Deve Gowda are ending on 25 June.
Nominations of Rajya Sabha candidates will be accepted till 3 pm on 8 June.
Besides Kharge, Congress is likely to field Mansoor Ali Khan and Pawan Khera. The BJP may nominate either Sumalatha Ambareesh or Pramod Madhwaraj in the fourth seat.
AICC secretary Khan was in charge of the recent Kerala Assembly elections, where the Congress-led UDF bagged 102 seats, defeating the CPI(M)-led LDF. Sources said Khan’s name is being discussed, considering his role in the Kerala polls. He was also in charge of the Telangana Assembly elections in 2023, in which the Congress emerged victorious.
Khan is the son of A Rahman Khan, veteran Congress leader and former Union minister.
Another AICC secretary and party’s national spokesperson, Khera has been consistently on the offensive against the BJP. The Supreme Court had, in May, granted bail to Khera in a defamation and forgery case filed by Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, an entrepreneur and the wife of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Earlier, it was said that Andhra Pradesh Congress president YS Sharmila, the daughter of the late Congress leader YS Rajasekhara Reddy, would be considered to the Rajya Sabha. However, indications are that the party would favour Khera, who maintained good relations with former Delhi Chief Minister, the late Sheila Dikshit, as well as the Gandhis.
The Congress has been accommodating a non-Kannadiga in its Rajya Sabha quota in Karnataka.
Meanwhile, the BJP is likely to field either actor-turned-politician Sumalatha Ambareesh or Pramod Madhwaraj. Son of former Congress minister Manorama Madhwaraj, Pramod held the Youth and Empowerment and Sports portfolio in the 2016 Siddaramaiah cabinet, a post he held till May 2018.
Pramod joined the BJP in May 2022. He had then cited “political suffocation” as the reason for parting ways with the Congress.
By promoting Pramod, hailing from the Mogaveera community, the BJP may be expecting to counter Siddaramaiah’s influence among the backward classes, Dalits and other minorities. Incidentally, Siddaramaiah has been pushing for including Mogaveeras on the list of Scheduled Tribes.
Formerly an Independent MP from Mandya, Sumalatha joined the BJP on 5 April 2024. However, the BJP ceded the Mandya Lok Sabha seat to its alliance partner JD(S). In 2019, Sumalatha, as a BJP-backed Independent, had defeated Nikhil Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) by a margin of 1,25,876 votes.
