Rashtriya Janata Dal member Manoj Jha may be the joint Opposition candidate for the Deputy Chairman post of the Rajya Sabha, a senior Congress leader said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the Congress, after a meeting of the Parliamentary Strategy Group (PSG) headed by party chief Sonia Gandhi, decided to approach its ally, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) , to put up a candidate but a source claimed that DMK chief M.K. Stalin was reluctant to field one.
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DMK’s Tiruchi Siva was considered to be a front runner to become the Opposition’s joint candidate. However, the Opposition is now looking to field Mr. Jha as the common candidate after the DMK’s reluctance to contest.
“We may lose but we will definitely contest the election and will file the nomination on Friday,” said a senior Congress leader.
The Opposition parties will have a meeting on Thursday to finalise the candidate.
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The process of choosing a new Deputy Chairman got delayed because of COVID-19 and now the last date for filing nomination is September 11. Election to the post will take place on September 14 when the monsoon session of Parliament gets under way.
The post had fallen vacant after Janata Dal (United) member Harivansh had finished his term in April. However, the JD(U) MP has now been re-elected as a Rajya Sabha member from Bihar and filed his nomination for the Deputy Chairman post for second term on Wednesday.