The biennial election for 11 Bihar Legislative Council seats, including that of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Rabri Devi, will take place on March 21. Senior Janata Dal (United) leader Narendra Narayan Yadav was on Friday elected unopposed as Deputy Speaker of the Assembly.
Out of 11 seats that are falling vacant, the BJP has three MLCs — Mangal Pandey, Sanjay Paswan and Shahnawaz Hussain — while the Congress’s Prem Chandra Mishra represents the lone seat for the party. A member of the JD(U) from the Legislative Council, Sanjay Kumar Jha was recently elected to Rajya Sabha and besides him, the terms of party MLCs Rameshwar Mahto and Khalid Anwar too are coming to an end.
The terms of Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) leader and former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi’s son Santosh Kumar Suman too is coming to an end. Mr. Suman is currently a Minister in Mr. Kumar’s cabinet in the NDA government.
The Election Commission on Friday announced that the biennial polls for 11 seats of Bihar Legislative Council will be held on March 21 with notifications to be issued on March 4. The nomination papers will have to be filed by March 11 and the candidates can withdraw their papers by March 14.
Aside from CM Kumar and former CM Rabri Devi’s term, RJD leader Ram Chandra Purvey’s seat is also falling vacant. From Congress, an ally of RJD, the seat of the party’s senior State leader Prem Chandra Mishra is also falling vacant.
Elected unopposed
Meanwhile, senior JD(U) leader Narendra Narayan Yadav was elected unopposed as Deputy Speaker of the Assembly. Chief Minister Kumar and Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary along with other leaders congratulated him after he was elected to the post. Mr. Yadav has been a multiple-time MLA from Alamnagar seat in Madhepura district.
Earlier on February 21, JD(U) leader Maheshwar Hazari had resigned from the post of Deputy Speaker of the Assembly and the party had proposed the name of Mr. Yadav. Mr. Hazari is likely to be inducted into the State cabinet, which may be expanded in the first week of March.
