On Friday, the Election Commission announced biennial polls for a total of 11 seats of the Bihar Legislative Council, including one held by CM Nitish Kumar whose term would expire in the next two months. Among those whose current tenure ends on May 6th are former CM Rabri Devi and Ram Chandra Purve.
As per the Election Commission’s announcement, notification for elections to these 11 seats will be issued on March 4th, and the last date for filling nominate papers will be March 11th. Members of the state legislative Assembly will elect candidates for these seats on March 21st between 9 am to 4 pm. The counting of the votes will take place the same day in the evening and shall be completed by March 23rd.
Retiring members of JD(U), RDJ and HAM
The JD(U), headed by the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, held a lion’s share. Besides Kumar, there are other members whose term is ending, including Sanjay Kumar Jha, who recently got elected to Rajya Sabha, and JD(U) MLCs Khalid Anwar and Rameshwar Mahto.
Similarly, BJP members’ terms are also coming to an end, including Mangal Pandey, Sanjay Paswan, and Syed Shahnawar Hussain. And Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) members include former CM Rabri Devi and her party colleague Ram Chandra Purve.
SC/ST welfare minister in the NDA government Santosh Kumar Suman (son of former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi) is also retiring. Suman is the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) (secular) President who was nominated to Rajya Sabha by RJD in 2018 in the HAM-RDJ coalition. But in 2020, HAM broke the Grand Alliance and became part of the NDA.
Seats share
BJP’s representatives are Union Minister Sanjay Paswan, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, and former state minister Mangal Pandey, holding a total of three seats out of eleven seats. While Congress holds only one seat represented by Prem Chanda Mishra.
Also Read : PM Modi to launch development projects worth crores in Varanasi today.