The date for the bypoll for a Rajya Sabha seat from Bihar, which fell vacant after former JDU president Sharad Yadav’s disqualification, is likely to be announced soon, said sources in the Election Commission.
Patna based JDU sources said that the party’s national spokesperson and former Rajya Sabha member, K.C. Tyagi is likely to be nominated to replace Yadav.
“The decision of who will replace Sharadji is entirely a call of the party president (Nitish Kumar) and no concrete decision has been taken yet. It will be premature to comment on who is a possible candidate. However, it is true that a large section within the party, which includes Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, are in favour of renominating Tyagi because of multiple reasons. He has served the party interest with complete honesty and dedication during the recent tumultuous time and was able to put across the party’s point across the media, general public and among the national leaders as was asked by the CM and the party. Unlike some leaders in our parties, he does not harbour too many ambitions and shares a cordial relation with everyone,” a senior Patna based JDU functionary said. Patna based party leaders said that the name of JDU general secretary Sanjay Jha was also being floated by a section of party leaders for the seat, but in the current political scenario, it is improbable that he will be preferred over Tyagi. According to EC sources, the decision on when to conduct the bypoll is likely to be taken soon. The sources hinted that it is likely to be held duiring the winter session of Parliament, which is slated to start from 15 December. Yadav, along with Anwar Ali, was disqualified from the Rajya Sabha last week by the order of the Vice President and chairman of the Rajya Sabha, M. Venkaiah Naidu after the chairman agreed with JDU’s contention that the two leaders had “voluntarily given up” their memberships by defying their party’s directives of not attending a rally of Opposition parties in Patna a few months ago.
The RS seat of Ali Anwar, which was supposed to expire in April next year, will get filled when elections are held next year as per the original schedule.
In April next year, six RS seats (including the one held by Ali Anwar), held by Mahendra Prasad (JDU), Anil Kumar Sahani (JDU), Basistha Narain Singh (JDU), Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP) and Dharmendra Pradhan (BJP) will be up for contest from Bihar, which has 16 RS seats.