Manjhi stakes claim to Rajya Sabha seat in Bihar
NDA partner Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Saturday said that his party Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) should be given a Rajya Sabha (RS) seat in Bihar for which elections would be held on March 16. Manjhi claimed that the HAM, a constituent of the NDA, had been promised one Rajya Sabha seat by the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The NDA is yet to name candidates for the polls for the Upper House of Parliament. Trinamool Congress and BJD announced their candidature for the March 16 RS polls, for which nominations will end on March 5.
Of the total 16 Rajya Sabha seats in Bihar, five will be vacated in April, for which elections will be held. The five are Harivansh Narayan Singh and Ram Nath Thakur of the JD(U), Prem Chand Gupta and Amarendra Dhari Singh of the RJD, and Upendra Kushwaha of the RLM, a constituent of the NDA.
The Election Commission has announced elections for five Rajya Sabha seats in Bihar, three of which are held by the ruling NDA. The last date for filing nominations is March 5, while scrutiny of nomination papers will take place the next day. Candidates will be allowed to withdraw their nominations until March 9.
After the announcement of RS candidates by Trinamool Congress, BJD too announced senior party leader Dr Santrupt Misra and doctor Datteswar Hota as its candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls. Misra had unsuccessfully contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Cuttack and presently works as the political secretary to Patnaik, while Hota is an eminent urologist. The four RS seats from Odisha fall vacant after the tenure of four MPs — Niranjan Bishi, Munna Khan, Mamata Mohanta and Sujeet Kumar — ends in April this year.
Former West Bengal DGP Rajeev Kumar was rewarded with a Rajya Sabha candidature by TMC. Kumar was at the centre of a high-profile confrontation between the West Bengal Government and central agencies in connection with the investigation into the Saradha chit fund case.
Apart from Kumar, the TMC also announced the names of State minister Babul Supriyo, senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy and actor Koel Mallick as candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections.
