Patna, May 19 Suspense over the candidature of Union Steel Minister R.C.P. Singh for the Rajya Sabha from Bihar still continues after his JD-U's national President Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh on Wednesday said that the decision will be taken by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
"The Chief Minister is the supreme authority on this matter and he will take decisions on Rajya Sabha candidates," Lalan Singh said.
His statement came soon after R.C.P. Singh said that he did not know about his selection as a Janata Dal-United candidate for the Rajya Sabha election.
"I am not aware of going to Rajya Sabha or not. It will clear on May 24 when nomination of the candidates starts for Rajya Sabha polls. So we have to wait till date," he said.
Lalan Singh has already announced the name of one of the candidates Anil Hegde for Rajya Sabha.
The tenure of 5 Rajya Sabha members from the state - Sharad Yadav, Misa Bharti, Gopal Narayan Singh, Satish Chandra Dubey and R.C.P. Singh is ending in June this year.
At present, the BJP has 77 MLAs, RJD has 76 and JD-U has 45 seats in the 243-member Assembly. Besides, the JD-U may manage to take support of 4 MLAs of HAM and one Independent.
As per the number game, the BJP and the RJD have the highest numbers, and will be easy for these two parties to elect two candidates each. As the JD-U has already announced the name of Hegde, the situation for R.C.P. Singh has become extremely tough.
For RJD, the name of Misa Bharti is almost confirmed while the name of another candidate will be announced soon by the party's national President Lalu Prasad Yadav.
The nomination for the Rajya Sabha poll starts from May 24 and it will end on May 31. The candidates can withdraw names till June 3 and polling will be held from 9 am to 4 pm on June 10.
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