The Rajya Sabha candidature of Ramchandra Prasad Singh, union minister for Steel hangs in limbo as a major section within the party is not in favour of sending him to the upper house from Bihar. In all likelihood, Singh might not get the candidature from Bihar and will depend on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to send him to the upper house. A senior party leader who wished to be unnamed said, “he might not get the Rajya Sabha berth from the party this time.” Suspense over the candidature of Singh started after Janata Dal (United) national President Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh said that the decision will be taken by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and after which R.C.P Singh told the media that he did not know that he is going or not to the Rajya Sabha.
Talking to The Daily Guardian Neeraj Kumar, party’s chief spokesperson and Member of Bihar legislative Council said, “Any decision will be taken by our leader and Bihar’s chief minister Nitish Kumar, the national president had said the same that Rajya Sabha candidature will be decided by Nitish Kumar,”.
The tenure of five Rajya Sabha members from the state – Satish Chandra Dubey, Gopal Narayan Singh (both from the BJP), Sharad Yadav and RCP Singh(JDU) and Misa Bharti(RJD) is ending in June this year. The election commission of India had declared the dates of the election process. The nomination starts from May 24 and will end on May 31. The candidates can withdraw names till June 3 and polling will be held from 9 am to 4 pm on June 10.
As per the membership strength of parties in the Bihar Legislative Assembly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 77 MLAs, the Rashtriya Janata Dal(RJD) has 74 MLAs and JD-U has 43 seats in the 243-member Assembly.
As per the number game, the BJP and the RJD can easily send two members while the JD (U) can send one member from Bihar.