Raj Babbar files Rajya Sabha nomination from Uttarakhand
Congress leader and actor Raj Babbar is set to be elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Uttarakhand. The seat was vacated after the untimely death of Maonrama Sharma Dobriyal. Dobriyal was elected to Rajya Sabha in November 2014.
The actor filed his nomination papers on Tuesday. He is the lone candidate to file the nomination papers for the vacant Rajya Sabha seat.
Although several senior Congress leaders in the state were in race to get the party ticket to enter Rajya Sabha, party’s high command declared Babbar’s name on the last date of filing the nomination papers.
“Raj Babbar is choice of Congress Party’s vice president Rahul Gandhi. Rahul wants Babbar to do organizational works for the Congress Party particularly in UP and Uttarakhand. Thus, he became a choice for the Rajya Sabha’s vacant seat from Uttarakhand,” a source in Congress Party told the Indian Express.
Addressing a press conference in the state assembly building, Chief Minister Harish Rawat said Babbar will plead the case of Uttarakhand very effectively in the Rajya Sabha. He further said there is uncertainty over Uttarakhand’s present status as a special category state. “I had seen Raj Babbar in Lok Sabha. He will be a good advocate of Uttarakhand in Rajya Sabha,” Rawat told reporters.
Babbar also assured the Congress MLAs that he would raise Uttarakhand’s voice in the Rajya Sabha after he is elected. He recalled that he has been coming to Uttarakhand since his days in the Bollywood. “I had a project in my mind for Pithoragarh in 1994,” he recalled. However, he did not give any details about his project.
Babbar’s selection as Congress nominee for the Rajya Sabha did not come as a surprise for the local congress leaders. “He is a known figure in the national politics. He met the chief minister a few days back in Dehradun. Unlike UP, Uttarakhand has no Legislative Council to accommodate its local leaders and thus, senior leaders automatically join the race for Rajya Sabha seat in case of any vacancy,” a senior congress leader explained the reason for high demand among Congress leaders for Congress ticket to enter the Rajya Sabha.
Source:: Indian Express
