All the five candidates, including Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh, who have filed their nominations for as many seats of the Upper House of Parliament from Bihar, on Friday looked set to get elected unopposed.
According to Vidhan Sabha secretary and returning officer Bateshwar Nath Pandey, those who filed their papers on Friday, the last day of nominations, included the JD(U)'s Harivansh and Ram Nath Thakur, and Vivek Thakur of the BJP.
Two RJD candidates Prem Chand Gupta and A D Singh
had filed their nomination papers for the other two seats the previous day.
All the five seats are at present held by the NDA
three by the JD(U) and two by the BJP. However, on account of a change in the composition of the state assembly after the 2015 polls, the NDA can now win only three seats.
The RJD can wrest two seats one on its own and another with the help of smaller parties like HAM, CPI(ML) and AIMIM, besides the old ally Congress, which has sufficient number of votes to see the candidate of Lalu Prasad's party through but is in a sulk after its claim for a ticket was summarily dismissed.
All the five candidates are now expected to be declared elected on March 18, the last date for withdrawal of nominations.
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However, the choice of candidates has left in its wake dissatisfaction among supporters of the ruling NDA as well as the opposition Grand Alliance.
The BJP is facing allegations of dynasty politics as Vivek Thakur, who is making his parliamentary debut, is the son of former Union minister and party veteran CP Thakur whose term ends in April.
However, the debutant rebutted the allegation while talking to reporters after filing his nomination papers, saying he has spent 24 years as an active member of the BJP and held key organizational posts in party and its youth wing
Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha.
Nevertheless, the partys decision to field Thakur, an upper caste Bhumihar, did not go down well with another upper caste group - the Kayasthas - considered loyal to the BJP.
The Akhil Bharatiya Kayasth Mahasabha issued a statement here expressing "severe displeasure" over the BJP denying a second consecutive tenure to Ravindra Kishore Sinha and even refusing to consider his son Rituraj Sinha as a replacement.
"We had expressed our dissatisfaction with Sinha having been denied a Lok Sabha ticket from Patna Sahib. This is another instance of the community being ignored. The BJP must not commit the mistake of seeing us as its 'bandhua mazdoor' (bonded labour)," the Mahasabha said.
It said that before the last years general elections, Kayasthas from Bihar had three representatives in the two Houses of Parliament Sinha and Ravi Shankar Prasad in the Rajya Sabha and Shatrughan Sinha in the Lok Sabha.
The number will now drop to just one as Shatrughan Sinha lost to Prasad in Patna Sahib and the Rajya Sabha will now be left with no Kayastha member from Bihar, it lamented.
In contrast, the Bhumihars have three members in the Lok Sabha from the state, and in the Rajya Sabha the community is represented by Sangh ideologue Rakesh Sinha, it said.
Also, posters were put up at some places in the city by "Kushwaha Navanirman Sangh", accusing the saffron party of "insulting" the Kushwaha community.
It was claimed in these posters that the BJP had promised to send one member from the community to the Rajya Sabha during the Lok Sabha poll campaign last year when the sizeable caste group did not get any representation.
JD(U) candidates Harivansh and Ram Nath Thakur hailed Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the partys national president, for "reposing trust in ordinary workers". The denial of a second term to Kahkashan Perveen has caused some disappointment among the minority community.
Shah Raza, an anti-CAA activist, who was seen active during the recent state-wide stir on the issue by CPI's rising star Kanhaiya Kumar, had on Thursday obtained a nomination form and announced that he will run as an Independent candidate with the "support of all parties, citing "injustice to the minorities".
He, however, did not turn up till the time for filing nominations came to a close.
Meanwhile, the RJDs cold shoulder to ally Congress, which had requested for one of the two seats, has ruffled feathers in the five-party Grand Alliance.
The RLSP, headed by former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha, accused the RJD of "treachery" and claimed "all is not well in the coalition".
"It is clear who has committed treachery and who went back on a commitment made in public," RLSP national secretary general Madhaw Anand said referring to an announcement made by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav a year ago that it would help the Congress in getting one Rajya Sabha berth from Bihar.
"All constituents must be willing to make sacrifices and keep the interests of allies in mind for the coalition to succeed. But some parties seem to have other ideas, said Anand without naming the RJD.
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