J'khand: BJP unit forwards names to Central leadership for RS by-elections

RANCHI: The state BJP has forwarded a list of a dozen names to the central leadership for the forthcoming byelections for the two Rajya Sabha seats of Jharkhand. The election committee of the state BJP, which met here on Saturday, decided to send the names to the central party leadership for a final decision. The list includes names like former Rajya Sabha MPs Ajay Maroo and Devdas Apte, former state BJP president Abhay Kant Prasad and former Ranchi MP Ramtahal Chaudhary.

Later, a meeting of the core group was also held to discuss the strategy for the elections, scheduled on June 20. The party has already opposed the Election Commission���s (EC) decision to hold the elections separately. The party has taken strong exception to the EC's move, saying it smacked of an attempt to favour the UPA. By holding elections separately, the UPA stands to win both the seats since it is ahead in numerical strength, whereas if elections for both the seats are held together, the NDA may get one seat.

As reported earlier, elections for two Rajya Sabha seats of Jharkhand is scheduled on June 20, nominations for which are to be filed by June 10. The elections are taking place with the resignation of BJP's national vice-president Yashwant Sinha and former JD-U leader Digvijay Singh who have been elected to the Lok Sabha.

State BJP president Raghubar Das said by holding the elections separately the EC was trying to help the UPA. Mr Das said the EC has issued two separate notifications. As a result, he said, two separate ballot papers are going to be used. "This has never happened. Since elections to two seats are taking place simultaneously, it does not make sense to use two ballot boxes," said the state BJP chief.

Mr Das said since the assembly is under suspended animation following imposition of President's Rule in the state, a whip cannot be issued on the MLAs. This, along with EC's move, will lead to horse-trading in the state, he added.
The present strength of Jharkhand assembly is 73. Under the UPA fold, the JMM (17), Congress (9) and RJD (7) together have 33 seats while the NDA, with BJP (25) and JD-U (4), has only 29 MLAs.