NEW DELHI, JUNE 14 Congress strategist Jairam Ramesh, part of the think tank which put the poll strategy in place, is likely to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh.

The Congress, expecting to win 15 of the 65 seats in elections to the Upper House on June 28, will have the largest chunk from Andhra Pradesh where the party swept the Assembly elections. In a position to secure six of the seven seats from the state, the Congress has reportedly decided to leave one for the TRS and another for the CPI(M).

There are indications that besides Jairam Ramesh, Girish Sanghi, proprietor of Andhra daily Vartha, Hanumantha Rao, an OBC leader, and Ravi Mallu, a Dalit, may make it from the Andhra quota. Ex-minister P Upendra’s name is doing the rounds.

Congress circles say that CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury may come to the Upper House from the Andhra seat left for his party. Politburo member Prakash Karat told The Indian Express that the AP committee of the party would take a decision tomorrow and send it to the Politburo for approval. But sources confirmed that Yechury’s name figures in the list under consideration.

Sonia Gandhi has had a difficult task finalising the Rajya Sabha nominations because she has to synthesise the compulsion of rewarding those who have been loyal or worked hard with the need to bring those who can effectively counter the onslaught of an aggressive BJP in the Rajya Sabha. The just concluded session saw the BJP stalling the House on the issue of ‘‘tainted’’ ministers and BJP leaders have indicated that the deadlock might continue during the Budget session.

Most of the BJP’s leading lights are in the Rajya Sabha: Sushma Swaraj, Pramod Mahajan, Arun Jaitley and Jaswant Singh. Arun Shourie and MM Joshi are likely join them soon. The Congress will need all its firepower to counter the attack. For this reason, deciding some of the nominations has become more difficult than usual for Sonia. For instance, in Tamil Nadu, there’s a toss-up between Jayanthi Natarajan and EMS Nachiappan: the party can win a lone seat from the state.

On the one hand, there’s the consideration of honouring an I-owe-you to Nachiappan, a sitting member of the 13th Lok Sabha from Sivaganga, who made way for P Chidambaram. He had been assured that he would be rewarded suitably. On the other hand, there’s a need to get someone like the articulate and active Natarajan into the Upper House to strengthen the Congress team.

Besides, in the case of Tamil Nadu, there’s also a feeling that neither of the two Congress Ministers — Mani Shankar Aiyar and EVKS Elangovan — are from the erstwhile Tamil Manila Congress stream which merged with the Congress. TNCC chief GK Vasan has been articulating this sentiment. Jayanthi Natarajan was in the TMC though she had all along been close first to Gandhi and then to Sonia Gandhi.

Another person who could effectively counter the Opposition attack is Salman Khurshid who was also a member of the core group to oversee the recent polls. Khurshid was doing his utmost to rustle up the numbers in UP but found the going tough.

Ten Janpath loyalist Satish Sharma, who lost the LS polls from Sultanpur, is also expected to get a RS nomination, possibly from Uttaranchal. He may be inducted later in the Union Cabinet.