NDA nominates JD(U)'s Harivansh Narayan Singh as candidate for RS deputy chairman election
New Delhi, Aug 7 (IBNS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has chosen Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) leader Harivansh Narayan Singh as its candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha deputy chairman election, media reports said.
However, according to reports, Singh's nomination has upset BJP's other ally Akali Dal as the latter's leader Naresh Gujral was the front-runner to become the NDA's candidate for a long time.
Consequently, the Akali Dal has decided to abstain from voting during the election in the upper house.
The battle for the deputy chairman's post will have a face-off between the ruling NDA and the Opposition as the latter is set to field a joint candidate.
In the upper house, the NDA lacks majority with the Opposition having an upper hand.
In a house comprising 245 members, the NDA, which runs the central government, has 89 seats. The combined Opposition has 158 seats with the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) having 66 of them.
The election will be held on Aug 9.
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