The ruling Janata Dal (United) is likely to drop its three Rajya Sabha members who are going to retire this month. The process of filing nomination papers for the election to the five seats has begun from Tuesday and the last date for filing nominations is January 28. The polling, if needed, would be held on February 7.
Though the two main parties JD(U) and BJP are expected to take a final decision on their nominees for the vacant RS seat on Friday, the buzz in the political circle in the State capital was that the ruling party has decided to drop all its three sitting RS members NK Singh, Sabir Ali and Shivanand Tiwari for their second term.
Earlier, it was said that the JD(U) might repeat two of its nominees NK Singh and Sabir Ali but Shivanand Tiwari would not be able to get through after his hard remarks against CM Nitish Kumar at the recent JD(U) Chintan Shivir at Rajgir.
Tiwari had also said that nobody had approached him regarding this neither he would approach anyone for his re-nominations. “Though, the party has been sending its RS members for second consecutive term earlier…now its upto them to decide”, he had told mediapersons a few days ago.
But springing a surprise, the JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, it is said, has decided to drop all three retiring party RS members to send some other party leaders to Rajya Sabha in their place.
Kumar is expected to meet party president Sharad Yadav on Thursday night to decide the names for the three vacant seats of Rajya Sabha. The party might announce the names of the nominees on Friday. Earlier, Kumar had said “Once a decision is taken, it will be made public.”
Meanwhile, sources told The Pioneer that Kumar was not happy with NK Singh as he reportedly has failed to come up to the Bihar CM’s expectation on garnering support for his special status demand from the Centre.
“Nitish Kumar was also not happy with the Raghuram Rajan report on Bihar which, actually had put a big embarrassment on his face regarding the special status demand”, said party leader.
Earlier, Kumar, reportedly, was briefed that the Raghuram Rajan report was going to be a big leap towards the CM’s repeated demand for special status to the State but it came out reversed causing embarrassment.
Regarding Sabir Ali, party sources said Kumar was happy with his role played during recently concluded Delhi Assembly poll in which party had to face a huge face loss with its humiliating performance.
Out of total 27 seats contested by the JD(U) it forfeited its deposit on 26 seats whereas one candidate who could manage to win Shoab Ikbal was turncoat. He had joined JD(U) after quitting the lJP.
Sabir Ali was JD(U)’s State president in Delhi and he had played a big role in choosing candidates for the party. It is reportedly said that he had fielded over 40 per cent of the candidates from the minority community and all of them had forfeited their deposits in the poll.
“Sabir Ali might have been denied his re-nomination for his follies in Delhi Assembly,” said a State JD(U) leader.
It is also said that the party has offered lok Sabha seats to all its three retiring members but one, of the Shivanand Tiwari, has refused to accept the offer while declining to contest the Parliamentary poll.
Party sources said that Shivanand Tiwari has been offered the Buxar lok Sabha seat while NK Singh and Sabir Ali were offered Banka and Sheohar lS seats respectively.
No official comment on this has come yet from Sabir Ali or NK Singh on the news of their denial of re-nominations. Sources said they would rather wait for the final announcement of names from the party on Friday before making any comment on this.
Among the five seats, Prem Chand Gupta of RJD and CP Thakur of BJP too are retiring. Thakur appeared all set to be re-nominated but the RJD would not able to sail through Prem Chand Gupta as each candidate would need first-preference votes of at least 40 MlAs to win the election. The RJD has just 22 members. RJD sources, however, said that Prem Chand Gupta might be sent to the Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand this time.
In view of the current strength of the State Assembly, the JD(U) appeared all set to retain its three seats while the BJP too is comfortable with its 91 members to bag two seats in its fold.
The BJP is likely to announce names of its two candidates for the Rajya Sabha seats on Friday.