Manoj Jha vs Harivansh Narayan Singh: MPs to elect Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman today

The election to the post of Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha will be held on Monday, the first day of Parliament’s monsoon session.

According to reports, as many as 12 opposition parties have decided to support candidature of Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Manoj Jha.

The parties are the Congress, Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Shiv Sena, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Kerala Congress (M), Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Indian Union Muslim League. The RJD MP was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2018.

The post fell vacant after the term of Harivansh Narayan Singh, a Janata Dal (United) member, ended in April. The JD(U) leader has been again nominated as the NDA candidate for the election.

RJD and JD(U) are arch-rivals in Bihar where assembly elections will be held very soon.

Jha was teaching in the Delhi University when he entered politics and became a Rajya Sabha MP. He is also the national spokesperson for the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

Singh is an economics graduate and belongs to Sitab Diara village in Bihar’s Saran district. He is a former journalist and served as the editor of Hindi daily Prabhat Khabar. He became a Rajya Sabha member in 2014.

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

Harivansh is likely to be elected to the post again as BJP floor managers are confident of securing the support of about 140 MPs, including the fence-sitters from YSR Congress, TRS and BJD. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance’s tally stands at 116 in the 245-member House.