Shimla: Congress leader Anand Sharma on Wednesday filed his nomination for the lone Rajya Sabha seat in his home state Himachal Pradesh.
Sharma, the Deputy leader of Congress in the Rajya Sabha had resigned from the upper house on Monday to contest the Rajya Sabha election from the seat, which will fall vacant after BJP member Bimla Kashyap’s term expires on April 2.
Four sets of nomination papers were filed by 40 MLAs, including chief minister, his cabinet colleagues, Chief Parliamentary secretaries, party MLAs and four independents.
Sharma’s election to Rajya Sabha for the third time from Himachal is a foregone conclusion as the opposition BJP with 27 members in the 68-member house is unlikely to field its candidate.
Earlier Sharma was elected to Rajya Sabha in 2014 from Rajasthan. Now he has been nominated by Congress high command to contest from Himachal Pradesh.
The Congress deputy leader was a cabinet minister in Manmohan Singh government and later became the deputy leader of the party in Rajya Sabha after the UPA government was ousted in 2014.
The last date for filing nominations is March 11. Scrutiny would take place on March 12 and if required, the voting would be held on March 21 and results would be declared the same day.
PTI