Chandigarh, June 30 (IANS) Senior Congress leader and former Haryana finance minister Birender Singh Wednesday filed his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha seat as Congress candidate from the state.
Birender Singh, whose political relations with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda have not been good in recent years, was accompanied by Hooda and other ministers and legislators when he went to the assembly to file his papers.
Haryana Congress president Phool Chand Mullana, who was in the running for the Rajya Sabha seat, was also present when Birender Singh filed his papers.
Election for two Rajya Sabha seats that have fallen vacant in the state, are scheduled to be held July 10.
Birender Singh, who openly says that he is in contention to be Haryana’s chief minister, had lost from his assembly seat, Uchana Kalan in Jind district, in October last year to Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) president Om Prakash Chautala by 621 votes.
The Congress last year appointed Birender Singh as chairman of a committee to monitor the functioning of the Hooda government.
While the Congress is in power in Haryana and will eye at least one of the two seats, the INLD has 31 members in the 90-member house.
The INLD has nominated backward class leader Ranbir Singh Gangwa for the Rajya Sabha seat.
