Amidst rumour of horse trading during Rajya Sabha elections, Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee (JPCC) said that there was no question of withdrawing its candidate, and that the UPA alliance will win both the seats.
JPCC Chief and Finance Minister of the State, Rameshwar Oraon said that the party can not withdraw its candidate only on the fear of defeat in the election. He was reacting on former Minister in the State Government and Jamshedpur East MLA, Saryu Roy’s statement in which Roy had said that he would talk to JPCC Chief to withdraw the party candidate from the fray to prevent horse trading.
Oraon appealed to Roy that he should extend his support to United Progressive Alliance (UPA) second candidate, Shahjada Anwar. He assured that there is no possibility of horse trading because all 18 MLAs of the party were loyal to the party. If the party will not field its candidate then all MLAs of the party will be free to vote in favour of any candidate, he added.
The Finance Minister of the State said that Congress candidate has support of two MLAs of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), 18 MLAs of Congress, one MLA of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and one independent MLA, Kamlesh Singh. Congress has given opportunity to its grass root level worker instead of a billionaire, he added.
It may be mentioned here that Roy had said on Saturday that fielding Anwar will create situation of horse trading. Out of total 81 members Assembly, a candidate will need the support of at least 27 MLAs to win the election. The JMM has 29 MLAs. After Babulal Marandi joined BJP, the party’s strength will increase to 26.
If the two MLAs of AJSU are included, the number of pro-BJP MLAs increases to 28. In this way JMM and BJP may send their candidates to Rajya Sabha.
For the second seat BJP fielded its newly elected State Chief, Deepak Prakash.
The elections will be held for two of six Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand, currently occupied by independent Parimal Nathwani and RJD’s Premchand Gupta. Shahzada Anwar, who had earlier unsuccessfully contested the Assembly election from Ramgarh thrice as Congress, JMM and RJD candidate, filed his nomination accompanied by senior Congress leaders.
The polling for the two seats will be held as the tenure of two Rajya Sabha members from the State will end on April 9 this year.
The election process started from March 6. Polling will be held on March 26 on ballot paper. The results will be announced at 5 pm on the same day.