The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday wrested the Rajya Sabha seat in Bihar which had fallen vacant upon the death of former Union Minister Ram Jethmalani, who was elected three years ago on an RJD ticket.
BJP leader Satish Chandra Dubey was declared elected unopposed since no other candidate had filed nomination papers for the byelection.
After the end of the deadline for withdrawal of nomination papers at 3 p.m., Satish Chandra Dubey was declared elected unopposed. He was handed over the certificate inside the Vidhan Sabha premises, State Assembly Secretary Batesar Nath Pandey said.
Jethamalani was elected on a seat from the quota of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) in 2016, which gave up the claim over the same as a goodwill gesture towards the RJD headed by Lalu Prasad, his then alliance partner who had hired the renowned lawyer’s services in fodder scam cases.
The seat’s tenure was to end in 2022. With the JD(U) back in the NDA camp and enjoying an absolute majority along with the BJP and Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP in the State assembly, the Grand Alliance headed by the RJD refrained from throwing its hat in the ring.
