Ranchi, March 14 The battle for the second Rajya Sabha seat in Jharkhand has become interesting after Congress fielded Shahzada Anwar against BJP's Deepak Prakash.
Shibu Soren, the father of chief minister Hemant Soren, is set to sail through for the first Rajya Sabha seat as the JMM has 29 legislators, two more than the required 27. This is the first time Shibu Soren, popularly known as guruji, will go to Rajya Sabha.
However, for the second seat, both the BJP and the JMM-led ruling alliance have claimed that they have the requisite numbers.
The BJP is set to get the support of two All Jharkhand Students Union Party legislators for Deepak Prakash. The BJP has 25 MLAs in the state.
On the other hand, Anwar is a long-time Congress worker and unsuccessfully contested the Ramgarh assembly seat twice in the past. He claims the support of 16 Congress MLAs, two legislators of Jharkhand Vikas Morcha who recently joined the Congress, one each of the RJD, the NCP and the CPI (ML) and two independent MLAs. However, that does not add up to the requite number of 27 which shows that the scale is tilted in favour of BJP's Deepak Prakash for the second Rajya Sabha seat.
( With inputs from IANS )