Arjun

New Delhi, March 13: The odds favour three of the four Union ministers in the Rajya Sabha elections this month-end but the fate of the fourth hangs in the balance.

Barring last-minute upsets, Arjun Singh (human resource development), Hans Raj Bhardwaj (law and justice) and Sushil Kumar Shinde (power) will be elected from Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra, respectively.

Shinde, who was inducted into the cabinet in the last reshuffle, is expected to sail through because the Congress can win seats on its own from his home state.

Despite opposition from Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and other local leaders, the high command persuaded them that the lone seat from their state should go to Bhardwaj, who was earlier sent to the Upper House from Madhya Pradesh.

This time, the Congress has just enough strength in Madhya Pradesh to have one member elected and that will be Arjun.

Questions were raised internally on whether it was feasible to send Arjun because of his “failing” health. The minister, who has been in and out of hospital for the last few months, rarely attended office and was not seen during the budget session of Parliament.

But as Congress president Sonia Gandhi takes care to treat veterans with respect and given the perception that dropping Arjun would appear “highly improper”, it was decided that he should be renominated.

A question mark hangs over the fate of minister of state for mines, Dasari Narayana Rao, but not for want of votes. He was elected to the Upper House from Andhra Pradesh where the Congress has enough legislators to send four members. Rao is not even an “outsider”.

But some MLAs levelled allegations of corruption against him and one of them threatened to resign if he was renominated.

The lone Karnataka seat is expected to go to K. Rahman Khan, the deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, despite hectic efforts by former central minister C.K. Jaffer Sharief to elbow him out.

Sources said if Khan was denied renomination, he would have to be recompensed with another post. Among the other names doing the rounds is that of Sam Pitroda, who may get the lone berth from Orissa.