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Updated: Aug 14, 2019 01:03 IST

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh filed his nomination for the August 26 bypoll to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan on Tuesday.

The seat fell vacant after the death in June this year of Madan Lal Saini of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also a former state party president. Rajasthan has 10 Rajya Sabha seats, so far all held by the BJP.

After filing his nomination, the 87-year-old leader thanked the Congress for nominating him. “I am very grateful to the Congress party, chief minister Ashok Gehlot, deputy CM Sachin Pilot and other members of the House who have nominated me. Same time I recognise that there are sad circumstances in which the vacancy has come. I convey my heartfelt condolences to the Saini family,” he told reporters.

Singh also expressed gratitude to the people of Rajasthan for giving him the privilege to serve them. He said he would do his “very best in the interests of the people of the state and do whatever is possible to promote the cause of people of Rajasthan.”

Singh, 86, was accompanied by Gehlot, Pilot, AICC general secretary in charge of Rajasthan Avinash Pande and secretary Vivek Bansal, as well as state ministers and MLAs. His nomination was backed by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and majority of the independents.

The last date for filing nomination is August 14 and polling is on August 26. Counting will be done on the same day. The BJP has so far not declared any candidate for the bypoll.

The Rajasthan Assembly has 200 seats, of which two are vacant. The Congress has 100 MLAs and its alliance partner Rashtriya Lok Dal has one. The BJP has 72 seats while the BSP has 6. The Bharatiya Tribal Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Rashtriya Loktantrik Party have 2 seats each. There are 13 independents.

The ruling Congress in the state enjoys the outside support of 12 of the 13 independents as well as the BSP.

Singh, who headed the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre from 2004 to 2014, was a member of the Rajya Sabha from Assam for five consecutive terms (1991-2019). His tenure in the Rajya Sabha ended on June 14 this year but he could not be renominated from Assam as the Congress did not have sufficient numbers.