Tycoon forces polls for RS

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With the last-minute entry of a surprise candidate raising the number of contenders vying for the five vacant Rajya Sabha seats from Bihar to six, it may now be an election and perhaps some horse-trading that would decide which two of the three non-NDA nominees go to the Upper House.

While the three ruling NDA candidates — two of the JD(U) and one of the BJP — have the comfort of their Assembly majority to smoothen their way to the Rajya Sabha, hopes nurtured so far by the two RJD-LJP candidates for a similar fortune were upset by the unexpected filing of nomination by Uday B. Garudachar, a Karnataka industrialist and owner of Bengaluru’s popular Garuda Mall, as an independent candidate on Monday. All the six candidates’ nomination papers were found valid on Tuesday.
Unseemly obstacles were put before Mr Garudachar by some RJD-LJP leaders to prevent him from filing his nomination in the Assembly on the last date. When he arrived at the Assembly after 2.20 pm along with Independent MLA Dadan Singh Yadav, alias Dadan Pahelwan, and a few MLAs from the BSP and Congress, senior RJD-LJP leaders present there shouted “Time is over”. They were shouted down by Pahalwan.
Former RJD MP and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s loyalist Ram Kripal Yadav, the second nominee for the RS from the RJD-LJP, is expected to be in trouble if Garudachar does not withdraw his name by the official deadline of June 10 and an election is held on June 17 as per the notifications. With the RJD boss having made LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan the party’s first candidate and allotted him 40 votes, including nine of the LJP, Ram Kripal Yadav, the second choice, could fail to get over a dozen votes needed for his victory. When one of Mr Garudachar’s aides left the Assembly to get some critical documents needed while filing his nomination, three vehicles were deliberately parked outside the Assembly gates to prevent Mr Garudachar’s vehicle from leaving the premises.
Ram Kripal Yadav and LJP leader P.N. Paras, present in the Assembly at the moment, were reportedly behind this failed manoeuvre.