Three days before the first Parliament session of the Seventeenth Lok Sabha, former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's Rajya Sabha term ended. Manmohan Singh has been a Rajya Sabha member for five consecutive terms since 1991. This is the first time after twenty-seven years when Dr. Manmohan Singh will be out of Parliament.
Dr. Manmohan Singh has been a Rajya Sabha MP from Assam. But this time it is not easy to win elections for Congress. Of the 126 assembly seats in Assam, the Congress has only 26 seats. AIUDF has 13 seats. In such a situation, it was not possible for Congress to win the elections from Assam by the cooperation of AIUDF.
In Assam, two seats for the Rajya Sabha election, one seat is in the BJP and the second seat is in the part of the Assam Gana Parishad. Both the seats are vacant due to the term of Manmohan Singh and S. Kuzur. Election Commission has already started the process for the elections on these seats.
A senior Congress leader said that it is extremely important that Manmohan Singh's stay in Parliament is very important. In such a situation, the party will look at the possibility of sending Parliament from any other state. The options in front of the party are very limited. The party is looking for an alternative to sending former Rajya Sabha to the Rajya Sabha with the support of DMK from Tamil Nadu.
The party could not send Manmohan Singh to the Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu, then may have to wait till April next year. Because elections have been held for the 55 seats of the Rajya Sabha in April. Of these, six seats of Congress-ruled states will be vacant. In such a situation, Congress can send the former Prime Minister to the Rajya Sabha from these states.
