The Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to nominate its national spokesperson MJ Akbar as party's candidate for by-election to a Rajya Sabha seat from Jharkhand. The by-election has been necessitated following the resignation of Kanwar Deep Singh.
"BJP president Amit Shah has decided that MJ Akbar will be the party's candidate for the Jharkhand Rajya Sabha bypoll," a party statement said.
The bypoll will be held on July 2, the last date of filing of nomination for which is June 22 and the last date for withdrawal of nomination is June 25. The bypoll results will be out on July 2 and the tenure of the elected member will be up to July 7, 2016.
A former journalist and editor, Akbar started his career as a trainee with The Times of India in 1971 and was associated with various publications including India Today, Telegraph,The Asian Age, The Sunday Guardian. He has also authored several non-fiction books. In 1989, Akbar joined politics and won lok Sabha election from Kishanganj in Bihar on a Congress ticket though in the 1991 elections he lost that seat.