Cong loyalist Satish Sharma asked to hang up his boots

Lucknow: Longtime Congress loyalist Captain Satish Sharma was on Saturday elbowed out of the Rajya Sabha race by senior Supreme Court advocate Kapil Sibal. Sharma, a former Lok Sabha MP from Rae Bareli, was seeking a third term to the upper house.
Sources in the Congress told TOI that Sharma had a closed door meeting with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi to plead his case on Friday.However, with a poor track record in the Rajya Sabha, the former pilot was finally asked to hang up his boots and give way to Sibal, who comes not only with plenty of experience, but is also expected to provide firepower to Congress' counter to NDA government's onslaught on the Gandhi family and the Congress, especially on legal matters pertaining to the National Herald and Augusta Westland, among others.
Sharma was close to former PM Rajiv Gandhi, and derived most of his clout in the Congress to this proximity. After Rajiv Gandhi's death in 1991, Sharma represented Amethi in the Lok Sabha until 1998. He was later shifted to the neighburing Gandhi pocket borough Rae Bareli, from where contested the general elections. In 2004, Sharma ceded ground to Congress president Sonia Gandhi from where she has since been an MP. He also served, for controversial three years, as petroleum minister, under the PV Narsimha Rao government.
Since his shift out of "mainstream" politics, the Congress rewarded Sharma for his apparent loyalty by sending him to the Rajya Sabha. However, in his current stint in the Rajya Sabha, 'Captain' Sharma neither participated in debates nor made any significant contribution to the Congress in the upper house. Sharma's track record in tabling bills was also dismal.