Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) candidate Mahua Majhi and BJP candidate Aditya Sahu on Tuesday filed nominations for two Rajya Sabha seats from the state which will fall vacant in July. As there were only two candidates for upper house from State, both the candidates are likely to get elected unopposed.
Mahua Majhi reached the Assembly in the afternoon and filed her nomination paper before returning officer Javed Haider. She filed her nomination in two set. Chief Minister Hemant Soren, drinking water and sanitation minister Mithilesh Thakur, RJD MLA and State labour resources minister Satyanand Bhokta, MLAs Sarfaraz Ahmad and Stephen Marandi were present on the occasion.
The Congress party which is part of alliance government had kept distance from Mahua’s nomination as the grand old party had demanded Rajya Sabha seat, but at the last moment JMM had decided to field its candidate Mahua Majhi from one seat.
Majhi was earlier the chairperson of the Jharkhand State Commission for Women. The JMM leader had in the past unsuccessfully contested elections from the Ranchi Assembly seat.
On the other hand, BJP candidate Aditya Sahu too filed his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha election at the state assembly. Sahu accompanied by more than 5000 BJP supporters reached the Assembly in the afternoon. After completing the formalities he filed his nomination paper before returning officer Javed Haider.
Those who were present with Sahu during the nomination process included BJP legislative party chief and former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi, Ajsu chief Sudesh Mahto, BJP national vice president and former chief minister Raghubar Das and state BJP president and Rajya Sabha member Deepak Prakash and Khunti MLA Neelkant Singh Munda.
Sahu filed three sets of nomination papers. In the first set, Marandi was the proposer, in the second set Mahto was the proposer and in the third set proposer remained Neelkanth Singh Munda.
A post-graduate in Commerce from Ranchi University, Sahu extended his service as a professor at Ram Tahal Choudhary College in Ormanjhi till 2019. His name had also surfaced as a Lok Sabha candidate from Ranchi parliamentary seat when the BJP had denied a ticket to veteran BJP leader Ram Tahal Choudhary without taking the latter into confidence and leaving the latter unhappy.
Sahu is the general secretary of the state unit of BJP and is easily accessible to all. He has been active in the party since 1980. Starting from his political career as a common BJP worker, he rose to the position of state general secretary to the party before working as president of the Ranchi district rural unit of BJP and a member of the state executive committee.
Elections will be held on June 10 to fill 57 Rajya Sabha seats in 15 States.