Why Kapil Sibal dumped Congress for a Rajya Sabha ticket
Kapil Sibal, who used to proudly say: 'Congress is not a party, it’s a phenomenon' has left the party all of a sudden. The senior Supreme Court lawyer has filed his Rajya Sabha (RS) nomination as an independent candidate with the support of Samajwadi Party (SP).
Sibal said that he quit the Congress party on May 16, 2022. While filing the nomination, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and Secretary General of SP, Ram Gopal Yadav sat alongside him.
#WATCH | Kapil Sibal filed nomination for Rajya Sabha elections, with the support of SP, in presence of party chief Akhilesh Yadav & party MP Ram Gopal Yadav
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) May 25, 2022
He says, 'I've filed nomination as Independent candidate. I have always wanted to be an independent voice in the country' pic.twitter.com/HLMVXYccHR
The election for the 11 Rajya Sabha seats from UP will take place next month. Apart from Sibal, SP can send two more candidates. For these two seats, the front-runners are former MP Dimple Yadav, RLD chief Jayant Chaudhury and also SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar.
But why did Kapil Sibal resign?
The exit of Sibal, who has been a senior leader of the party, does throw a lot of questions. He was one of the several G23 Congress leaders who wrote letter to the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to choose a party president.
His filing of RS nomination with support of SP makes sense. In 2016 too, Sibal was elected to the RS from Uttar Pradesh with the outside support from SP.
Sibal’s term has expired in the RS. After the assembly elections in UP, Congress has only 2 MLAs in the state. Which means it is in no position to elect a RS member.
SP, with 111 members in the assembly, can send 3 RS members. This is why, Sibal took outside support from the SP.
Why SP supported Sibal?
Sibal recently secured bail for Rampur MP and senior SP leader Azam Khan. Khan, who was lodged in the Sitapur jail since February 2020, had 88 cases against him.
By supporting the candidature of Sibal, Akhilesh may also be doing a favour to Azam Khan, who was reportedly upset with the former UP CM.