Nabam Rebia all set to win for Rajya Sabha MP seat from Arunachal Pradesh

ITANAGAR: The deck is cleared for BJP nominee Nabam Rebia from Arunachal Pradesh to be elected as the Rajya Sabha MP from the State after his nomination was found valid on Wednesday, a senior official of the Legislative Assembly informed.

Rebia, who filed his nominations on Monday, is the lone candidate in the State to file papers for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from the northeastern State, Legislative Assembly Secretary K Habung, who has been appointed as the returning officer by the Election Commission, informed.

The BJP's central election committee on Sunday nominated Rebia as its candidate.

Habung informed that Rebia would be declared elected after the last date for withdrawal of papers.

June 12 is the last date for withdrawal of nominations and the election process should be completed by June 22.

Mukut Mithi of the Congress is the incumbent Rajya Sabha MP from the northeast State whose tenure will end on June 23.

Rebia, who represented the state in the Rajya Sabha for two consecutive terms from 1996 to 2002 and 2002 to 2008 as a Congress candidate, had also served the state as Speaker and Cabinet Minister.

The Election Commission of India on June 2 had issued notification for holding elections to the lone Rajya Sabha seat in Arunachal Pradesh along with other States on June 19.

The 60-member Arunachal Pradesh Assembly has 41 BJP MLAs followed by seven Janata Dal United (JDU) members, Congress and National Peoples' Party (NPP) four each, Peoples Party of Arunachal one and three independents.

The JDU and the NPP are supporting the Pema Khandu-led BJP government.