PATNA: JD(U)'s lone candidate for the biennial election to the Rajya Sabha Khiru Mahto (68), who was nominated by the party in place of Union minister RCP Singh, on Monday filed nomination before the returning officer-cum secretary, Bihar Vidhan Sabha, in presence of CM Nitish Kumar and many top NDA leaders.
Accompanied by Nitish, JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, the BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal, deputy CM Tar Kishor Prasad and scores of senior leaders from both the parties, Khiru turned up before the returning officer around 1.30 pm and filed his nomination papers.
JD(U)’s Jharkhand unit president Khiru came into the limelight on Sunday after the party’s de facto leader Nitish Kumar decided to nominate him for the Rajya Sabha in place of the bureaucrat-turned-politician and party veteran RCP Singh. Khiru represented the Mandu seat in Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha from 2005 to 2009.
Though BJP’s both candidates - Satish Chandra Dubey and Shambhu Sharan Patel - turned up in the Vidhan Sabha premises along with the NDA leaders, they could not file their nominations on Monday as they could not complete their papers till 3 pm, the last hours for filing the nominations. “Both the BJP candidates will now file their nominations on May 31, the last date for doing so”, a Vidhan Sabha official said.
Earlier on May 27, RJD’s two candidates – Misa Bharti and Faiyaz Ahmad - had filed their nominations for the Rajya Sabha election.
As all three major political parties – BJP, RJD and JD(U) - have so far declared only five candidates against the 5 Rajya Sabha seats from Bihar, there is no chance of voting for the current polls.
If only five candidates file their papers till May 31, the last date for making the nominations, there would be no voting. All five candidates, if their nominations were found valid during the scrutiny, would be declared ‘elected uncontested’ on June 3, the last date for withdrawal of candidatures.
