New Delhi: NDA candidate and JD(U) member Harivansh was on Thursday elected as Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman, defeating opposition's B K Hariprasad.
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu initiated the process of the election by calling for division of votes in the House. While Harivansh Narayan Singh secured 125 votes, Hariprasad got 105.
The post of Rajya Sabha deputy chairman has been lying vacant since the retirement of P J Kurien on July 1.
Harivansh, one of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s closest aides, has been a Rajya Sabha member from JDU since 2014. Singh is a veteran journalist. The 62-year-old was at the helm of the Prabhat Khabar, a Hindi newspaper based in Jharkhand. He is credited to have brought the paper back from the dead when he took over as its editor during the year 1989. Prabhat Khabar is widely known for reporting relentlessly on the fodder scam starting from 1992. Despite being a first-time parliamentarian, Singh comes with a clean image along with the grit of a veteran journalist.
A graduate from Banaras Hindu University, he was born in Ballia. Interestingly, he was a close aide of former PM Chandra Shekhar, who served on the post for about 8 months. He has also been an associate of renowned socialist Jai Prakash Narayan, someone who is credited to have influenced Singh’s life.
Choosing Singh as their candidate puts across a very important message from the BJP’s side. With things hitting a rough patch with the BJP-JDU combination in Bihar, getting Singh on the pedestal is likely to be seen as an ice breaker.
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