Contesting for Rajya Sabha Dy Chairperson’s post to keep federalism alive: Manoj Jha

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 13

The united Opposition candidate for the post of Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, RJD MP Manoj Jha, said he had accepted the candidature despite the numbers in the house not favouring him for one reason and that being the health of the Parliamentary democracy and keeping alive the federal scheme of the Indian Constitution.

Talking to The Tribune, Jha said he had once lost a student union election by three votes and “after his defeat, the fellow students regretted the poll outcome”.

Even as on the Jha’s and running NDA’s Harivansh’s candidatures, the cloud of the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections hanging for both of them represent the state in the Upper House, the Opposition Nominee said: “It is wrong to conclude this way, as my efforts are to ensure different voices flourish in democracy.”

Asking Rajya Sabha members to “stand up and be counted” in front of people of the country, he hoped that regional parties, which formed the governments in the states, “should think before deciding on supporting the candidates, as the House represents them”.

In a letter to all MPs in the House, Jha said: “It is the collective wish of the Opposition that this election may not be seen as a contest for power to legislate at the level of the Union Government. It should also not be seen as a contest between two individuals.”

He added: “In view of the great Parliamentary tradition, this election is about two different versions of our Parliamentary democracy: one, which only sees it as a numbers game, and the other, which places importance on critique, discussion, and consensus building in the interest of our country and its people.”

He told The Tribune that he was “very hopeful that some of the parties outside opposition grouping will support me”. He went on to add: “I am requesting MPs support not simply to win an election, but to make a strong statement in favour of an accountable system of governance.”

Jha said that the election for the post of deputy chairperson scheduled for September 14 — the first day of business in the COVID-affected session of the Parliament — is a chance for MPs to “stand up and be counted in front of the people of this country”.