New Delhi: A keen contest is on the cards Thursday between NDA nominee Harivansh and joint opposition candidate B K Hariprasad for the post of Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman, with both sides claiming majority support.
The numbers, however, appear stacked in favour of the ruling coalition which claims the support of 126 members in the Upper House, which has an effective strength of 244 MPs.
While Harivansh is a first-time MP of the JD-U, Hariprasad is a three-time parliamentarian of the Congress. Both the ruling NDA and the opposition camp gave notices on behalf of their respective candidates and their papers have been found to be in order, according to sources in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat. The election will be held at 11 am Thursday, soon after the laying of papers. The post of Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman has been lying vacant since the retirement of PJ Kurien July 1.
The opposition camp is claiming support of various parties, including Congress, TMC, DMK, Left parties, SP, BSP, NCP, TDP. “We have decided to support Congress leader BK Hariprasad,” TDP leader YS Choudhary said. The TDP has six members in the Upper House.
On the other hand, the ruling NDA is intact, with the Shiv Sena and Akali Dal extending their full support to the official nominee, besides also by independent parties like the AIADMK and the TRS.
Sources said the top BJP leadership as well as Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar are learnt to have talked to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for his party’s support to Harivansh. The BJD has 9 MPs in the Upper House while AIADMK and TRS have 13 and 6 MPs respectively.
“We have numbers on our side and Harivanshji will comfortably win the election tomorrow. It would have been better if the deputy chairman was elected unanimously,” Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel said.
According to BJP’s calculations, Harivansh is likely to get the backing of 91 NDA members, three nominated and erstwhile SP MP Amar Singh. He also has the votes of some non-NDA parties — AIADMK (13 members), TRS (six), YSRCP (two) and INLD (one) — adding
up to 117. Besides, the ruling alliance is counting on the support of nine BJD MPs, totalling 126 votes, BJP leaders claimed.
Hariprasad has the support of 61 MPs of the Congress-led UPA, 13 members each of the TMC and the SP, six MPs of the TDP, five of the CPI(M), four each from the BSP and the DMK, two of the CPI and one MP of the JD(S), adding up to 109 members.
One nominated and one independent member will also support the candidature of Hariprasad, sources in the opposition said. This would take the expected opposition total to about 111, they said.
The arithmetic could change with the death of DMK chief Karunanidhi and uncertainty whether the party’s MPs would travel to Delhi for the election.
The PDP, which has two MPs, has declared it is abstaining. The AAP with three members has not clarified its stand so for. However, both parties are unlikely to support the BJP-backed candidate. There are other imponderables with several smaller parties not declaring their intention.
BJD to back NDA
Bhubaneswar: Putting all speculations to rest, BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Wednesday made it clear that his party would support NDA candidate during the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman’s election Thursday. Speaking to reporters after his return from Mumbai, Naveen said his party will support NDA nominee Harivansh Narayan Singh. “JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar has spoken to me and we will be supporting the JD(U) candidate, who is also the candidate of NDA for the RS election,” he said. The CM also said PM Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah spoke to him in this regard a few days ago. Sources said, BJD leader in Rajya Sabha Prasanna Acharya has convened a meeting of all party MPs in RS at 9.30 am Thursday. All members will be asked to stay in the house during voting and support the NDA nominee, the sources added. This is not the first time that the BJD is backing the NDA for the election of a constitutional post. Earlier, it had supported NDA’s presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind. The BJD had also indirectly backed the Modi government during the recent no-trust motion in the Lok Sabha.