NEW DELHI: Even as BJD threw its weight behind BJP-led NDA in the election for the deputy chairperson of Rajya Sabha giving the ruling coalition a clear edge, Congress refused to leave the arena and fielded its candidate to force a contest for the constitutional office. Congress announced the candidature of former party general secretary, BK Hariprasad, as its candidate against NDA’s Harivansh for the election scheduled for Thursday.Anand Sharma, deputy leader of Congress in the Upper House, made it clear that the decision not to facilitate the NDA nominee’s election by consensus was taken to amplify their opposition to the Modi government. “Opposition is not happy with the present state of the affairs and the prevailing environment in the country. This contest must be taken in that spirit,” Sharma said, a statement which seemed to acknowledge that odds were stacked against the opposition.NDA’s victory was looking a “ done deal” after BJD’s expected support even though it refrained from sponsoring the candidature of Harivansh, a prominent Hindi journalist who was part of the PMO under late Chandrasekhar. BJP national chief Amit Shah , Sanjay Raut, leader of BJP’s restive ally Shiv Sena , Akali Dal’s S S Dhindsa and JD (U)’s RCP Singh submitted four sets of papers in support of Harivansh. Hariprasad’s candidature, on the other hand, was backed by BSP’s Satish Mishra, NCP’s Vandana Chavan, Congress’ Anand Sharma, Samajwadi Party ’s Ram Gopal Yadav and RJD’s Misa Bharati.Congress announced its decision to field its candidate after regional parties appeared reluctant to take the field which seemed to tilt in NDA’s favour. However, Anand Sharma asserted that the decision to put up the fight was that of the entire opposition and was taken in the presence of NCP boss Sharad Pawar.The deputy leader of Congress in the Upper House claimed that the opposition would have similarly united also behind Vandana Chavan. A member of NCP, Chavan was speculated to be opposition’s choice for the position until Wednesday afternoon when Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik promised BJD’s support for Harivansh and Sena appeared unwilling to break ranks with NDA.Congress also accused the government and the ruling party of using the “influence of their authority and power” just to “swing” the election but insisted that the opposition was making a statement by ensuring a contest and fielding a joint opposition candidate The opposition’s display of confidence notwithstanding, BJD’s support could decide the outcome in NDA’s favour.The government is believed to have mustered the support of over 120 MPs in the upper House where the halfway mark is 123. Sources in the opposition , however, suggested that hectic parleys were still on within the opposition camp as well and that the UPA and regional parties were hopeful of taking their tally to 118, which will not be very far from the majority mark.Hariprasad, a three-term Rajya Sabha MP and general secretary in-charge of Odisha, said he was honoured to contest as opposition’s consensus candidate. He dismissed as “baseless” talk that he was being made opposition scapegoat after regional parties refused to field their candidates, knowing this was a losing battle.