Ranchi: It seems that Delhi will take the final call over the candidate who would be contesting the Rajya Sabha polls from Jharkhand as part of the Mahagathbandhan as both the JMM and the Congress are staking their claim on the seat. It is being expected that soon Chief Minister Hemant Soren will fly to Delhi and hold talks with senior leadership of the Congress party and fix the name of the candidate. He is likely to meet both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi over the issue.
If sources in the Congress party are to be believed then in charge of party Affairs in Jharkhand Avinash Pandey has stressed on the fact that this time Congress should get to field its candidate in the polls. The JMM too is prepared to field its own nominee despite the fact the party is batting trouble from inside as well as outside.
Executive president of JMM and Chief Minister Hemant Soren is busy tackling the ECI and court-related matters while a certain group of MLAs within the party are also giving him headaches in such a situation a consensus has still not been formed inside the JMM over the name of candidate despite leaders being adamant on their claim.
On its part, the state Congress has a long list of aspirants including the likes of former Union Minister Subodh Kant Sahai, Furkan Ansari and former Mp Ajay Kumar apart from that JPCC chief Rajesh Thakur is also in the race. Sahai is the old face and senior pro of the party while Ansari is showing the minority card and Dr Ajay is considered close to New Delhi. To win a Rajya Sabha seat from Jharkhand a candidate needs 28 votes of first preference.
The JMM has 30 MLAs while Congress has only 17 therefore without the support of the JMM it will not remain in a position to secure the victory of its candidate. Meanwhile, the notification for the polls on two Rajya Sabha seats of Jharkhand was issued on Tuesday with May 31 being the last date for filing of nominations.
The scrutiny will be held on June 1 while candidates will be able to withdraw their names by June 3. If needed polls will be held on June 10 and results will be declared later in the same. Tenure of Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Mahesh Poddar both belonging to the BJP is coming to an end due to which the two seats are going to get vacant.