New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P J Kurien is set to become the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
Kurien was the unanimous choice for the job with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley filing nomination in his favour.
Friday was the last day of filing nomination for the August 21 election.
Kurien`s election will be the first occasion where the ruling alliance and the Opposition will be jointly deciding a candidate after contest in both Presidential and Vice Presidential elections.
Kurien succeeds K Rahman Khan, whose term expired recently.
"Kurien is a nice, amiable person and enjoys good relations with leaders from various parties. We are not likely to put up a candidate against him," a senior BJP leader said.
The Left and other parties were reportedly not interested in fighting the election as the numbers do not add up and putting up a contest for the sake of doing so is not favoured by many. The ruling Congress has a comfortable majority with support from the SP and the BSP.
The name of Tariq Anwar from the NCP was also doing rounds sometime back when Sharad Pawar`s party had expressed reservations over the issue of cohesion and coordination in the ruling alliance.
Interestingly, among the proposers and seconders of Kuriens` candidature, were Trinamool Congress leaders Mukul Roy and Derek `O Brien, whose party had kept the Congress on tenterhooks till the last moment during the Presidential elections.
PTI
