Even as the Congress candidate for the March 26 biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha, Prabha Thakur, arrived here on Friday to file her nomination, not everyone in the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee was happy. While Muslim members have long been demanding that a leader from their community should be nominated, the Jat members have been pressing for a Jat leader to replace Natwar Singh who’s a Jat too.

For more than a month now, the Muslim members of the state Congress have been lobbying for their leaders and the names of ex-MLA Yasmin Abrar, ex-minister Ask Ali and MLA Ammanuddin Ahmed were making rounds. None of the Muslim leaders from the state have made it to the Rajya Sabha for a long time now and supporters of these members had met party leaders. Though there were some differences between them, with the three belonging to three different groups, the Muslim members hoped that one of them would make it to the Rajya Sabha this time.

The Jat members had made a representation to senior leaders stating that the BJP, in a bid to woo the Jat voters, had decided to give Gyanprakash Pilania a second term. “The high command has selected Thakur to avoid controversy. But many Congressmen are upset with this decision,” said a Jat member.

Meanwhile, BJP candidates, Pilania and Om Prakash Mathur, filed their nomination on Friday. But CM’s supporters were upset about Mathur’s selection as they wanted former state president Mahesh Sharma to get a Rajya Sabha seat this time.