Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Birender Singh and Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday filed their nomination papers for by-elections to two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana.
The Union Ministers, who filed their nominations in the presence of Speaker Kanwarpal Gujjar and Chief Minister Manohar Lal at the Vidhan Sabha here, presented two sets of nomination papers each to the Returning Officer of the Haryana Assembly, Sumit Kumar.
Haryana has five seats in the Rajya Sabha of which only three are represented right now — by Shadi Lal Batra and Kumari Selja of the Congress and Ram Kumar of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD).
While interacting with the media later, Mr. Singh and Mr. Prabhu exuded confidence that they would be elected unanimously to the Rajya Sabha.
In reply to a question, Mr. Prabhu said that it was a matter of pride that he got an opportunity to file his nomination from Haryana.
Earlier, he had been elected as a Member of Parliament from Maharashtra on four occasions.
Describing Haryana as a prosperous State, Mr. Prabhu said he and his Cabinet colleague Mr. Singh would jointly strive to take it further ahead on the path of development. They would also ensure that it got its due share from the various Central schemes and programmes.
Asked to comment on his remark that RS seats were available for Rs. 100 crore in Haryana, Mr. Singh quipped that he had spent only Rs. 100 for the same in the BJP.
