Hours before Rajya Sabha polling, AIMIM announces to vote for RJD candidate

On the eve of the Rajya Sabha polling for five seats, hectic activities were seen in the State capital where several rounds of meeting took place in both National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Opposition camp.

NDA, which is falling short of the 3 votes claiming to win all five seats, whereas the main opposition party, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) relying on five MLA of All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and lone MLA of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

Out of five candidates of NDA, two are from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which include the party’s President Nitin Nabin and Shivesh Kumar, whereas two are from Janata Dal (United) – Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and sitting Rajya Sabha member Ramnath Thakur and the another one is Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) President Upendra Kushwaha.

The sixth candidate is from RJD which has renominated businessman Amarendra Dhari Singh.

Going by the numbers, NDA has 202 MLAs – BJP – 89, JD-(U)- 85, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) -19, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) – 5 and RLM – 4. On the other hand, Opposition RJD has 25 MLAs, Congress 6, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation) – 2, Communist Party of India (Marxist) – 1 and Indian Inclusive Party (IIP) -1.

As per the calculation 41 MLAs are required to win one seat which means NDA requires 205 MLAs to win all five seats. Three MLAs from the Opposition side will have to do cross voting which cannot be ruled out since no party whip can be issued for Rajya Sabha polling directing candidates to vote for any specific candidate.

Similarly, RJD led Mahagathbandhan including Congress, left parties and IIP presently has 35 MLAs and require 6 more MLAs to win, which is only possible if 5 legislators of AIMIM and lone BSP MLA cast their votes in their favour.

To win the election, parallel meetings took place in both camps and even mock voting was done at the official residence of Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary as there are over 100 MLAs who will be voting for the first time in Rajya Sabha.

Earlier in the morning, the NDA legislators meeting was held at the residence of JD-(U) national working president Sanjay Jha followed by JD-(U) legislators meeting was held at the residence of minister Lesi Singh.

Meeting of the BJP legislators was held at the state guest house in Patna. Later in the evening, another round of NDA legislators meeting took place at the residence of senior JD-(U) leader and minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary.

Ahead of the polling, Leader of Opposition, Tejashwi Yadav, attended the Iftar party hosted by AIMIM state unit president Akhtraul Iman. Soon after the Iftar, Mr. Iman announced that all his five MLAs would extend support to the Mahagathbandhan in the Rajya Sabha polling.

“We have spoken to all our MLAs including the party high command (Asaduddin Owaisi) and have decided that all MLAs will vote for the RJD candidate,”Mr. Iman said.

To avoid shifting loyalties, RJD has shifted its MLA in a private hotel in Patna from where they will directly go to the Legislative Assembly for the voting.

Lesi Singh took a dig at RJD saying that their MLAs have been made house arrest.

In the NDA camp, Sanjay Jha said, “There was absolutely no issue regarding four seats, and now we have sufficient numbers for the fifth seat as well. NDA will receive more votes than anticipated, and all five candidates will easily make it to the Rajya Sabha.”

On other hand , IIP MLA I P Gupta asserted that JD (U) MLAs are upset after BJP has betrayed their leader Nitish Kumar by removing him from the post of CM.

He further claimed that now the JD-(U) MLAs see their future in Tejashwi Yadav and they will vote by listening to “antaratma ki awaz” (conscience vote).