Published Jun 04, 2026 | 7:59 PM ⚊ Updated Jun 04, 2026 | 10:51 PM
Pawan Khera, Mansoor Ali Khan and Mallikarjun Kharge.
Synopsis: Andhra Pradesh Congress president YS Sharmila, the daughter of the late Congress leader YS Rajasekhara Reddy, was in the running for a nomination to the Rajya Sabha. However, the party favoured Khera, who maintained good relations with former Delhi Chief Minister, the late Sheila Dikshit, as well as the Gandhis.
The Congress party has re-nominated AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.
In an AICC media statement released late on Thursday, 4 June, the party’s central leadership announced its Rajya Sabha candidates from Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand.
Elections to four Rajya Sabha seats in Karnataka, 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 has decided 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. Mansoor Ali Khan’s name was discussed, considering his role in the Kerala polls and had Siddaramaiah’s endorsement. He was also in charge of the Telangana Assembly elections in 2023, in which the Congress emerged victorious.
Mansoor Ali 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 from Karnataka. However, the party favoured Khera, who maintained good relations with former Delhi Chief Minister, the late Sheila Dikshit, as well as the Gandhis.
Sources said Khera’s name popped up in Karnataka after Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren opposed fielding an outsider from that state. It was learnt that Soren categorically told AICC that Khera’s win could not be guaranteed.
Jharkhand Congress in-charge K Raju and Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka had met Soren on 29 May to discuss the Rajya Sabha candidates.
One seat in Jharkhand will fall vacant when BJP leader Deepak Prakash’s term ends on 21 June. The state already has one seat, left vacant by the demise of Shibu Soren.
The AICC has now nominated Pranav Jha to contest the Rajya Sabha polls from Jharkhand.
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.
Also Read: TVK allots vacant Rajya Sabha seat to Congress
The AICC has nominated Praveen Chakravarty, an All India Professional Congress leader, to contest the lone seat in Tamil Nadu.
TVK president and Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay had offered the Congress party the seat that had become vacant in the state.
The seat fell vacant following the resignation of AIADMK’s C Ve Shanmugam, who had resigned from the Rajya Sabha after his election to the Assembly from Mailam.
Chakravarty had strongly advocated a Congress-TVK pre-poll alliance. However, the alliance was forged only after the TVK fell short of the required majority.
The Congress leadership also nominated Meenakshi Natarajan and Neeraj Dangi to contest the Rajya Sabha polls from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, respectively. Natarajan is AICC in-charge of Telangana.
