Bhubaneswar: Odisha BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik Wednesday announced that his party would support the NDA candidate Harivansh Narayan Singh for the post of Rajya Sabha deputy chairman. Elections for the post will be held on Thursday as the UPA has pitched Congressmen Hari Prasad as its candidate in the fray.
Patnaik lifted the veil from all suspense soon after arriving here from Mumbai. He said that the 9 BJD RS members would vote for the NDA cadidate. The chief minister disclosed that the prime minister Narendra Modi had approached him for support to the NDA candidiate.
Naveen was, in fact, was holding the key to the outcome of the elections. In the 245-member RS, the 9 votes of BJD was crucial for winning the elections. As the votes were divided almost equally between the NDA and UPA groups, all eyes were on the BJD votes.
The BJD chief was approached by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, union home minister Rajnath Singh and BJP president Amit Shah. NCP supremo Sharad Pawar also talked to Naveen as the party was interested to contest for the post.
