Jharkhand: BJP names local for 2nd RS seat

Ranchi: The BJP on Monday nominated the state unit treasurer as its second candidate for the Rajya Sabha election on June 11. The party's other candidate, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, filed his nomination papers on Monday for one of the two RS seats.
Mahesh Poddar, a local trader, is likely to file nomination on Tuesday, which is the last date.
BJP kept its options for the second seat open till late afternoon and waited for JMM and Congress to announce their stand on the opposition alliance.
With 47 MLAs under the NDA fold, BJP is certain to win one RS seat with the support of 28 MLAs. But for its second candidate to win, the party needs to rope in at least nine more MLAs.
Asked why the second candidate was fielded as this might lead to horse-trading, a source in the state BJP leadership said if opposition parties forge an alliance, then BJP may withdraw Poddar's name. A senior BJP leader said Poddar's name was announced as a damage-control measure by the party after internal dissent over candidature of an outsider (Naqvi is from Uttar Pradesh) started.
Naqvi is the Union minister of state for parliamentary affairs and a BJP loyalist who was elected to the Lower House in 1998 from Rampur and had also been a part of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet. He was accompanied by Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das on Monday.
Of the six Rajya Sabha seats from Jharkhand, two are going to polls. Three of the remaining four are outsiders.