New Delhi: The Congress has launched a search for a secure state to send former prime minister Manmohan Singh to the Rajya Sabha next year. His term expires on June 14, 2019.
According to sources, the national leadership of the Congress has made an assessment that it would not be safe to field Singh from Assam once again, given the overwhelming strength of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 126-member assembly.
Confirming the development, party circles said the 86-year-old Singh, who has been representing Assam in the Upper House of the Parliament for the fifth consecutive term since 1991, is unlikely to contest for one of the two Rajya Sabha seats from the state that will be falling vacant in June.
Meanwhile, the Congress has launched efforts to nominate him from Tamil Nadu, where six Rajya Sabha seats will be vacated in July next year, with the support of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). It was learnt that the Congress leadership has already initiated backroom parleys with DMK president M K Stalin to this end.
The party is eyeing one of the two seats which the DMK is in a position to win on its own.
DMK Rajya Sabha MP M K Kanimozhi, whose term ends in July, has evinced interest in contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from the Thoothukudi parliament seat. Taking a cue, the Congress has requested the DMK to consider Singh’s candidature to fill the seat to be vacated by Kanimozhi.
The Congress is attempting to fortify its tie-up with Stalin at a time when there are clear indications that the DMK would be part of the proposed grand alliance of opposition parties against BJP in the 2019 Parliament elections.