Biennial polls: Nitish Kumar, Rabri Devi among 11 elected unopposed to Legislative Council in Bihar

Patna, March 14

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was on Thursday declared elected unopposed to the Legislative Council, along with 10 others, who stood for the biennial polls to the Upper House.

Besides Kumar, who will be enjoying a fourth consecutive term, those who got elected include former chief minister Rabri Devi (RJD), who is the Leader of the Opposition in the legislative council, and cabinet minister Santosh Suman.

The CM, who heads the JD(U), reached the Vidhan Sabha secretariat to receive his certificate along with party colleagues like MLC Khalid Anwar, who got elected for a second consecutive term, and Lok Sabha MP and former national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh ‘Lalan’.

Deputy CMs Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, both from the BJP, were also present at the Vidhan Sabha secretariat.

Among the elected candidates, three are from the BJP — state president and former minister Mangal Pandey, who got a third consecutive term, besides Lal Mohan Gupta and Anamika Singh, both of whom made their debut.

The party banked on fresh blood, denying another term to veterans Sanjay Paswan and Syed Shahnawaz Hussain – former Union ministers.

Upon emerging from the Vidhan Sabha premises, Kumar flashed a broad smile when he was greeted by a posse of journalists.

To their barrage of questions, ranging from announcement of a seat-sharing formula by the NDA and a long overdue expansion of his cabinet, Kumar calmly replied, “You will get to know it all very soon. Many things will become clear by this evening.”

According to Vidhan Sabha secretary Raj Kumar, all elected candidates collected their own certificates except Rabri Devi, who had authorised close aide Bhola Yadav for the purpose.

Other RJD candidates, Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Syed Faisal Ali and Urmila Thakur, besides Shashi Yadav of ally CPI(ML) Liberation posed for photos, flashing victory signs, but refused to take questions on seat-sharing in the ‘Mahagathbandhan’.

The Left party is having a member in the legislative council for the first time in its history. The Congress, which held one of the 11 seats, gave up its claim in favour of the ally, which had helped it in getting state president Akhilesh Prasad Singh elected to the Rajya Sabha, for a second consecutive term, last month.

Elections were announced for the seats of the legislative council, the terms of which are ending in May.

The JD(U) had held four of these, but gave up two in view of a sharp decline in its tally in the Assembly.

The BJP, which had three of these seats, could increase its tally in the Upper House by virtue of its strength in the Assembly, but it chose to back Suman, whose party has only four MLAs.

Suman, whose father Jitan Ram Manjhi is a former chief minister, had won his first term with the help of the RJD, its ally of six years ago.

The RJD, too, improved its tally in the Legislative Council, backed by its strength in the Assembly, where it was the single largest party until five MLAs walked over to the NDA during the recently concluded Budget Session.