Patna: Backroom parleys have started for the fifth Rajya Sabha seat with the ruling NDA trying to win all the five falling vacant from Bihar in April. The Rajya Sabha election is scheduled on March 16, while March 5 is the last date for filing of nomination papers.The NDA leaders expressed confidence to win all from Bihar given their strength of 202 MLAs and falling short of just three more required to grab the fifth seat. RJD, with 25 MLAs and 10 more of Congress, Left and Saharsa MLA I P Gupta, it will have to bring all five AIMIM MLAs of Asaduddin Owaisi and BSP lone MLA on board besides keeping its Mahagathbandhan flocks united to win at least one seat.LJP(RV) of Chirag Paswan, HAM(S) of Jitan Ram Manjhi and Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) of Upendra Kushwaha among the NDA partners are in the race for the fifth seat.One candidate needs 41 MLAs’ support to win a Rajya Sanha seat from Bihar. BJP and JD(U) have 89 and 85 MLAs respectively to win at least two seats each on their own strength.When asked whether they will support the RJD candidate, AIMIM state chief and MLA Akhtarul Iman said his party will field its own candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections. “I will ask Tejashwi to support the AIMIM candidate. Why should we always vote for them and they won’t. Politics is a game of give and take,” he said on Friday.BSP lone MLA Satish also said his party supremo Mayawati will decide who to vote for.JD(U) minister Madan Sahni on Thursday created a flutter in the opposition camp by saying a few AIMIM MLAs were in touch with the ruling combine.LJP(RV) minister Sanjay Kumar Singh on Friday said his party leaders and all the 19 MLAs want Union minister Chirag Paswan’s mother Reena Paswan to represent the state in the Rajya Sabha.RLM MLA Madhav Anand hoped the NDA leadership will renominate his party chief Upendra Kushwaha, whose Rajya Sabha seat is also falling vacant. Kushwaha also needs an MLC seat for his son Deepak Prakash within the next three months to continue as a minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet as he is not a member of either House in the state.That makes Kushwaha’s choice for the Rajya Sabha a difficult option for the BJP given the long-pending demand of Manjhi for a berth for HAM(S) in the Upper House. Kushwaha’s RLM has four MLAs compared to six of HAM(S). RLM state president and Dinara MLA Alok Kumar Singh said the top leaderships in the NDA will decide on Kushwaha.However, RJD MLA Ranvijay Sahu said the opposition will win one seat in the March 16 polls and CPI(ML) MLA Ajay Kumar hoped AIMIM will back the RJD candidate on moral and ideological grounds to prevent the possibility of horse trading for the three more votes NDA needs to win the fifth seat.
