PATNA, March 2 -- The RJD parliamentary board on Sunday authorised national president Lalu Prasad and national working president Tejashwi Yadav to select candidate for the fifth Rajya Sabha seat it plans to contest. Of the total 16 Rajya Sabha seats from Bihar, five will fall vacant in April, for which elections will be held on March 16. The BJP and the JD (U) are all set to win two seats each it would be contesting. The BJP in all probability would be contesting the fifth seat as well. "The state and the central RJD parliamentary party which met at the official residence of leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav, authorised the two leaders to select the candidate. The names wiuld be announced in a day or two and nomination would be filed on March 5, the last day of filing papers," said Chitaranjan Gagan, state spokesperson of the RJD. He said that the party candidate would file the nomination on March 5. Lalu Prasad joined the meeting virtually. Top sources in the RJD said the party could make one among the two retiring MPs as it's candidate for another term to the upper house of Parliament or there could be some other senior face belonging to OBCs or muslim community as the joint opposition nominee backed by RJD . Among the two RJD's sitting MPs in Rajya Sabha retiring in April, Prem Chand Gupta is serving his fifth term while Amarendra Dhari Singh is a first term MP. The RJD-led grand alliance, which includes Congress, CPI(ML), CPI(M) and IIP, has only 35 members in the 243-strong state assembly, six less than the minimum number required to get a berth in the Upper House of Parliament. The suspense remains over the fifth seat, given the current situation where neither the RJD-led Mahagatbandhan nor the NDA has sufficient numbers to win it on its own. To win a Rajya Sabha berth, one needs the support of at least 41 MLAs in the 243-member Bihar assembly. The meeting was convened party supremo Lalu Prasad amid speculations that RJD national working president Tejashwi Yadav may contest Rajya Sabha polls in Bihar. On Saturday, political and media circles were abuzz with speculations that RJD may field its national working president Tejashwi Prasad Yadav as the joint opposition candidate though there was no official confirmation. Top RJD leaders did not comment on reports in a section of media about Tejashwi's candidature as RS nominee. RJD state unit spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwary said, "I have nothing to comment on the speculations, but one thing is quite clear. People want our leader, Tejashwi ji, in the Upper House of Parliament. Let's wait. Things will soon become clear." The RS terms will end next month for Harivansh Narayan Singh and Ram Nath Thakur of the JD(U), Prem Chand Gupta and Amarendra Dhari Singh of the RJD, and Upendra Kushwaha of the RLM, a constituent of the NDA....