BJP central leadership to decide on Rajasthan RS bypoll, says state unit

The Rajasthan BJP has left it to the central leadership to decide the party candidate for the Rajya Sabha bypoll from the state.

"We have taken the opinion from all our colleagues and have conveyed the opinion to Delhi. We have not received any final reply," said Gulab Chand Kataria, the leader of opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly, after a meeting of BJP MLAs here on Tuesday.

"After the final reply from the party high command in Delhi, we will decide and we have asked all our MLAs to remain in Jaipur," he added.

Congress has nominated former prime minister Manmohan Singh for the seat, who filed his nomination papers on Tuesday.

Given the Congress's majority in the assembly, Singh, 86, is likely to win the by-election to the seat which fell vacant after the demise of BJP Rajya Sabha member Madan Lal Saini.

Rajasthan Assembly has a total of 200 seats. Two of these are currently vacant.

The Congress has 100 MLAs while its coalition partner Rashtriya Lok Dal has a legislator.

The BJP has 72, the Bahujan Samaj Party has six, the Bharatiya Tribal Party, the CPI-M and the National Democratic Party have two MLAs each.

There are 13 independent MLAs and two seats are vacant.

Nominations for the bypoll can be filed by August 14 and the voting will take place on August 26. The counting will take place on the same day.

The election process will be completed on August 28. There are ten seats in Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan.