Former MP Dubey to be elected to Rajya Sabha

PATNA: Senior BJP leader and former MP Satish Chandra Dubey filed his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha seat on Friday. The seat fell vacant after the death of Supreme Court lawyer Ram Jethmalani on September 8.

Dubey’s unopposed election to the seat is considered to be a foregone conclusion as no other contestant filed nomination papers till the last date on Friday.

Dubey, who had earlier represented Valmikinagar Lok Sabha seat, filed his papers before the state assembly secretary Bateshwar Nath Pandey.

Dubey will be the first Rajya Sabha member from West Champaran district if he is officially declared elected to the Upper House of Parliament. He was accompanied by state BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal, also an MP from Bettiah, and many other leaders of the saffron party while going to file his nomination today.

On Thursday, BJP spokesperson and MLC Sanjay Mayukh had announced the candidature of Dubey on the instruction of party’s national president and Union home minister Amit Shah. Sources said Amit Shah had promised Dubey before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls that he would be accommodated once the seat for Rajya Sabha fell vacant from the state.

Dubey had called on Shah after the Valmikinagar Lok Sabha seat went to JD(U)’s quota. Dubey’s supporters were so angry that they had asked him to contest the election as an independent candidate. The issue was, however, settled after Shah’s intervention and assurances to accommodate him (Dubey) at appropriate time.

Earlier, LJP national president and Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar when the seat fell vacant following Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’s election to the Lok Sabha from Patna Sahib. Jethmalani’s tenure was scheduled to end in 2022.