Patna: Tuesday was the last working day for chief minister Nitish Kumar, the MLC.
The Bihar Legislative Council is getting ready to fill 11 seats in the House. This includes two seats which have been vacated due to disqualification of Narendra Singh and the death of BJP's Satyendra Narayan Singh. Remaining nine are those whose tenure of six years in the Council ended on Tuesday. Among these nine are the chief minister, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi and former chief minister Rabri Devi.
All of them had a photo session on the Legislative building grounds, and unlike the Rajya Sabha elections last month, there is no speculation about elections to the state Council. "No body spends money for a Council seat," said a senior BJP leader, stressing that since there was no contest in the Rajya Sabha polls in Bihar, it was unlikely there would be any for the Council.
The Election Commission notified the elections for the 11 seats on Monday. The final date for filing the nomination papers is April16 and if elections are required, the process will be held April 26 from 9am to 4pm, followed by counting of votes.
The RJD and Congress is set to gain in the Council, right now dominated by the NDA. While one member (Rabri) is retiring, it will win three of the 11 seats. The Congress will also win one seat. The BJP and JDU are expected to take three seats each.
For the BJP, deputy chief minister Sushil and health minister Mangal Pandey will return to the House. The third candidate remains a mystery now. Similarly, Nitish is likely to return to the House, but the party has to drop one MLC at least, as five of its members are retiring.
The JDU members retiring include Sanjay Singh, Upendra Prasad, Chandreshwar Chandravanshi and Rajkishore Kushwaha. There are talks of the party taking back former minister Narendra Singh since he has recently rejoined the JDU from the Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular (HAMS).
The RJD is capable of winning four seats, but there are talks of adjusting the son of former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, who recently broke from NDA ranks and joined the Grand Alliance group.
"We do not mind giving his son a ticket but we want him to enter as a RJD candidate and not a HAMS candidate," said a senior RJD leader. The Congress is tightlipped on its candidate but there is speculation about state president Kaukab Quadri making it to the House.
However, even after losing seats in the polls, the NDA will continue to dominate with 57 of 75 Council members. The RJD, with nine members, will be entitled to be recognised as the major opposition party and its leader would be given the leader of Opposition status.
