Rajya Sabha By-Poll: Polling underway for two Rajya Sabha seats in Bihar
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- Category: Bihar Political News
- Last Updated: Thursday, 22 January 2015 20:59
Rajya Sabha By-Poll: Polling underway for two Rajya Sabha seats in Bihar
Patna: An election to Bihar's two Rajya Sabha seats is underway on Thursday. Around 13 JD-U and some RJD MLAs have reportedly cross-voted in the bypolls. On the appeal of former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has extended his party's support to the ruling JD-U's two candidates in the Rajya Sabha by-election “to defeat BJP's game plan”. The BJP had on Wednesday announced that its MLAs would vote in favour of Independent candidates. Lalu Prasad said the RJD decided to support JD-U to forestall any chance to communal forces to play their dirty politics.
It was probably the first time in two decades that Nitish Kumar has publicly admitted that he sought support from the RJD chief after he and Lalu Prasad parted ways in 1994.
Lalu Prasad's decision to support JD-U is seen here as the first step for a likely realignment of RJD-JD-U to take on a surging Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar, despite reservations expressed by some RJD legislators and senior leaders like Raghuvansh Prasad Singh.
The JD-U faces a tough task to ensure that its candidates - Pavan Verma and Ghulam Rasool Balyavi - win the by-elections amid some of its rebel legislators announcing they would support two Independent candidates, Sabir Ali and Anil Sharma.
A group of rebel JD-U legislators, who claimed to have the support of over a dozen legislators, are determined to ensure the defeat of the official candidates.
However, some of the rebel legislators including Annu Shukla, Renu Kushwaha, Punam Devi, Daud Ali and Munna Shahi, who had proposed the candidature of two independent candidates, announced their support to the party's official candidates.
The house has 243 members, but its current strength is 237 members. The ruling JD-U has 117 legislators and is supported by one Communist Party of India legislator, two Independent legislators, four Congress legislators and 21 RJD legislators. The BJP has 88 members.
source:http://zeenews.india.com/