Bihar Opposition party Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Thursday announced the names of the party’s nominees for two of the five Rajya Sabha seats from the State that would go to poll on March 26 — Prem Chand Gupta and Amarendra Dhari Singh — and the name of the latter surprised many in the State’s political circles.
RJD State president Jagdanand Singh announced names of the party nominees.
Mr. Gupta’s name was expected as he has been a party leader and long-time close aide of RJD chief Lalu Prasad. He is currently a member of the Rajya Sabha from the neighbouring State of Jharkhand, but his term expires on April 9.
Little-known
The little-known Mr. Singh is a landlord involved in several business enterprises. “Honestly, I had not heard his name either…but I today came to know that he is from Paliganj in the Patna district and a big businessman with hundreds of acres of agricultural land,” a senior RJD leader and former minister told The Hindu.
“He comes from the upper caste Bhumihar community…by nominating his name, the party chief may have some political calculation in view of the upcoming State Assembly poll in the State,” another RJD MLA said, adding that he had been unaware of anyone by the name of Amarendra Dhari Singh.
Later, after both the RJD nominees had filed their nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha seats, RJD leader and Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Tejashwi Yadav told mediapersons, “Amarendra Dhari Singh has been in the party and it is not necessary that everyone knows everyone…both our party candidates have filed their nomination papers today and will have smooth passage to the Rajya Sabha.”
‘Positive signal’
Political analysts are also of the view that, ahead of the State Assembly elections, the RJD seeks to send a positive signal to upper caste voters by nominating Mr. Singh, who is also said to be close to Congress leader Ahmed Patel.
On Wednesday, the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) had announced the names of Harivansh Narayan Singh and Ram Nath Thakur, and the Bharatiya Janata Party had announced name of Vivek Thakur, as Rajya Sabha nominees for three seats, which they could win comfortably in view of the National Democratic Alliance’s strength of legislators in the State Assembly of 243 seats — a Rajya Sabha nominee needs the support 42 MLAs to win.
