President Draupadi Murmu has nominated Harivansh Narayan Singh to the Rajya Sabha to fill the vacancy left by the retirement of former Chief Justice of India Rajan Gogoi.
The nomination was made under Article 80 1 (a) of the Constitution, which recognises Harivansh’s contributions to journalism and social service. Till April 9, he served as the Deputy chairperson of the Council of States.
The move has come immediately after the end of his second term as an MP as a JDU member from Bihar on Thursday. The party had not nominated him for a third time through the state assembly.
However, the president's appointment will now enable the veteran leader to remain in the House without interruption.
Harivansh, 69, has also been known to be a close aide of CM Nitish Kumar and hails from Ballia, UP. He had previously been an editor for Prabhat Khabar, a newspaper that was prominent in Jharkhand and Bihar. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha for the first time in 2014.
He served as a member of several key committees, including the Standing Committee on Defence, the Select Committee of Rajya Sabha on the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013, the Joint Committee on the Bill to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, among others.
He served his seond term as Deputy chairperson of the Upper house starting from Spetember 14,2020.
Nitish Kumar, meanwhile, has announced his candidacy for the Rajya Sabha as his term as chief minister ends soon. He is expected to take the oath soon and demit office as the CM.
Apart from Nitish, BJP national president Nitin Naveen, RLSP president Upendra Kushwaha, Union Minister of State Ramnath Thakur, and BJP's Shivesh Kumar have been elected as Rajya Sabha members.
