Rabri, Prem Gupta likely to be RJD picks for RS election
PATNA: Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, currently in jail, is keen on sending his wife, former chief minister of Bihar Rabri Devi to the upper house of Parliament and it is likely that she will be the official nominee of the party in the April Rajya Sabha polls, people familiar with the matter said.
The people, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that former union minister and sitting Rajya Sabha MP Prem Chand Gupta is likely to be the second candidate of the party in the polls. The party is hoping to win two seats out of the five vacancies from Bihar in the upper house of Parliament.
Gupta is a close confidant of the RJD chief . A sitting RS member from Jharkhand, Gupta faced trouble three years ago when his name, along with that of his wife, figured in the IRCTC case in which Prasad, his wife and son Tejashwi Yadav are also accused. The case pertains to allotment of IRCTC hotels when the RJD chief was railway minister from 2004 to 2009 in the UPA- 1 government. The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a charge sheet in the case.
The people cited in the first instance said Devi’s candidature has found merit for two reasons; one, the elevation of former chief minister, a sitting member of the state’s legislative council, to the upper house of Parliament would help the party to quell rumblings within the party over the Rajya Sabha ticket.
They added that some senior leaders including former MPS Raghuvnash Prasad Singh and Shivanand Tiwary who nurse Rajya Sabha ambitions would not oppose Devi’s choice. .
The second reason is that Devi’s elevation to the Rajya Sabha may help the family get a bigger bungalow in Lutyen’s Delhi, the people added.
“After Lalu demitted office as railway minister in 2009 , the RJD’S first family has not had a big government accommodation in Delhi due to the party’s shrinking number of MPS especially after the 2019 polls. If Rabri Devi is elected, the party hopes she will get a bigger accommodation in lieu of her seniority,” said a party functionary. At present, the RJD has three MPS from Bihar in the Rajya Sabha including Prasad’s eldest daughter Misa Bharti.
The people said the names have been discussed with Prasad. A formal announcement is yet to be made.
State president of the RJD Jagdanand Singh did not confirm the choice of nominees.
“Both Rabri Devi and Prem Gupta are senior leaders. The party’s stand will be clear at an opportune time,” he said. Gupta could not be reached for comment.