Four candidates in fray for Rajya Sabha election in State

Four candidates in fray for Rajya Sabha election in State

Vijay Deo Jha Ranchi RANCHI Sunday, March 16, 2008 The Pioneer

The inevitable seems to have happened in the nominations for the Rajya Sabha biennial poll in Jharkhand. Money is learnt to have played its own role in it. Little known but affluent politicians from outside filing their nominations for the same lend ample testimony to such speculations.However, confusion remained worse confounded in the UPA camp here on the last date of filing of nomination by two more candidates claiming themselves to have the support of the UPA legislators. The Supreme Court lawyer and the former Congress Rajya Sabha member from Jharkhand RK Anand and and a former Janta Party MP from Delhi, Kishor Lal filed their nominations on Saturday reportedly with proposers belonging to UPA in the State.With this the number of candidates for the two seats, for which the biennial poll for the Rajya Sabha would be held on March 26, rose to four. Parimal Nathwani and Jai Prakash Singh filed their nominations on Friday as BJP and Independent candidates. The name of Nathwani is reported to have been proposed by eleven MLAs belonging to Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and one to BJP.The UPA camp ,therefore, found itself in a sticky situation as all the three candidates , RK .Anand, Kishor Lal and Parimal Nathwani had the names of the MLAs as their proposers on their nomination papers leading to the apprehension that their nominations could be rejected if the names of proposers appear in favour of more than two candidates.What seems to be more perplex is the fact that though Rashtriya Janta Dal, JMM and the Independents belonging to the UPA camp here have made their choices known ,the Congress is still keeping fingers crossed as it has neither come out in favour of any of the abovementioned candidates nor has it revealed its future strategy in this connection. The last minute cancellation of the visit of the Union Minister of State for Urban Development and the AICC incharge of Jharkhand, Ajay Maken, on Saturday is attributed to this very fact .According to reports while Anand's nominations papers had the signature of seven RJD and three JMM MLAs as well as those of one Minister ,Kishor Lal's name has been proposed by JMM MLAs and a Cabinet Minister. Nathwani, who filed his nomination on Saturday, was proposed by 11 JMM and one BJP MLA. As per rules one MLA may propose the names of not more than two candidates since there are two seats for which poll is being held.