Opposition parties will field Congress MP BK Hariprasad as their joint candidate for the post of the deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, PTI reported on Wednesday.

The election for the post will take place on Thursday. Candidates need to file their nomination papers before noon on Wednesday. The post has been vacant since the retirement of PJ Kurien in June.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance has nominated Harivansh Narayan Singh of the Janata Dal (United) for the post.

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Hariprasad, 64, is a Congress member of the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka. “The party must have taken this decision after a lot of thinking,” he told ANI. “We will talk to all the opposition leaders and discuss what is to be done.”

On Tuesday, reports had said that Vandana Chavan of the Nationalist Congress Party was likely to be the joint candidate for the Opposition. Later however, other Opposition parties reportedly chose to nominate their members, according to PTI.