JMM names Mahua Maji as Rajya Sabha candidate from Jharkhand

Ranchi, May 30: The ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on Monday named senior leader Mahua Maji as its candidate for Rajya Sabha polls from Jharkhand.

Earlier, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren said that the names for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections were declared after a discussion with the party president Shibu Soren.

“We discussed names and finally, Guruji (Shibu Soren) decided upon the name of Mahua Maji to be our Rajya Sabha nominee,” said CM Hemant Soren.

Maji is set to sail through the election as the JMM has 30 members in the Assembly, three more than 27 preference votes required to win the seat.

Tenure of two Rajya Sabha members, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Mahesh Poddar from Jharkhand, will be completed on July 7, 2022. Polling for the same will take place on June 10.

Earlier, the Congress Jharkhand unit had expressed its desire to send its candidate from the alliance to Rajya Sabha in the upcoming polls while also seeking “compromise” from partner Jharkhand Mukti Morcha which had fielded party president Shibu Soren to the Upper House in 2020.

The Jharkhand CM paid a visit to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi in the national capital on Saturday and is said to have discussed issues regarding the Rajya Sabha election made a visit to the national capital and had said before media on Sunday that there will be a consensus candidate on behalf of the Grand Alliance which had led to hope among Congress officials that JMM might give the seat to Congress candidate.

The Congress, which is the junior partner in the Hemant Soren government with 17 legislators, had requested the JMM to allocate a seat to it. The grand old party is yet to make any announcement on whether it would file its candidate or not.

The second seat for the Upper House on offer from Jharkhand is set to go to the BJP, which has fielded its state general secretary Aditya Sahu.