Janta Dal (United) MP Harivansh Narayan Singh defeated Rashtriya Janta Dal’s Manoj Jha for the post of the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman. The elections were held on Monday, the first day of Parliament’s monsoon session, which will end on October 1.

The leader, who is an economics graduate, belongs to Sitab Diara village in Bihar’s Saran district. Legendary Jayaprakash Narayan too hailed from this village.

Harivansh is a former journalist and served as the editor of Hindi daily Prabhat Khabar. He started his career in 1977 with the Hindi weekly Dharmyug. He then took the banking services exam and joined Bank of India in Hyderabad as an Official Language Officer. In 1981, he shifted to Patna.

After his banking stint, Harivansh joined the Hindi weekly Ravivar as an assistant editor. Ravivar, which is based out of Kolkata, was owned by the Ananda Bazar Patrika group.

In 1989, he moved to Ranchi and joined Prabhat Khabar. He rapidly rose in ranks and became the publication’s editor-in-chief. He quit the daily after becoming a Rajya Sabha member in 2014.

In 2018, Harivansh had comfortably defeated B K Hariprasad of the Congress to the post of deputy chairman, bagging 125 votes to his rival’s 105.

Monday’s election for the post was necessitated as the incumbent Harivansh completed his term as a member of the Rajya Sabha this year.