Congress leader Manu Abhishek Singhvi to file papers for Rajya Sabha seat from Himachal today
Shimla, February 14
Supreme Court lawyer and Congress leader Manu Abhishek Singhvi arrived here today to file his nomination paper for the election to the vacant Rajya Sabha seat. He came from Delhi and met Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. He will be filing his nomination paper tomorrow for the Rajya Sabha seat falling vacant on the completion of the term of BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda.
Congress has 40 MLAs in 68-member Assembly
- The Congress has a comfortable majority of 40 in the 68-member Assembly and so Singhvi will have a comfortable win
- The BJP has 25 MLAs and there are three Independents
- If only Singhvi files the nomination paper, the polling scheduled for February 27 will not be held and he will be declared elected on February 20 itself
- The last date for filing nominations is February 15 and the scrutiny of papers will be done on February 16
“Singhvi arrived in Shimla and met state Congress president Pratibha Singh, ministers and MLAs. He will be filing his nomination at 1 pm tomorrow,” said Sukhu.
The Congress has a comfortable majority of 40 in the 68-member Assembly and so Singhvi will have a comfortable win. The BJP has 25 MLAs and there are three Independent MLAs.
“It is surprising that the Congress did not have faith in any of the senior leaders from Himachal, be it former Union Minister Anand Sharma or former state ministers like Ram Lal Thakur, Kaul Singh Thakur and Asha Kumari or former MP Viplove Thakur, who were confident of finding favour with the top leadership,” said Jai Ram Thakur, Leader of the Opposition.
As the BJP is unlikely to field a candidate, the possibility of voting is ruled out. As such, Singhvi will be declared elected after the last date for withdrawal on February 20. As per the election schedule, the last date for filing nomination papers is February 15 and the scrutiny of nominations will be done on February 16.
If only Singhvi files the nomination paper, the polling scheduled for February 27 will not be held and he will be declared elected on February 20 itself.