Patna: Three names in the running for the 11 Legislative Council seats for which elections will be held stand out: Ram Chandra Purbey of the RJD, Sanjay Paswan of the BJP, and Prem Chandra Mishra of the Congress.

"The nomination of these three candidates indicates that patience pays even today when there is a story behind every candidate announced which is related to either money or the whims of a powerful leader," a JDU minister said, conceding that his own party's list, excluding Nitish Kumar, was "unimpressive".

Purbey hails from the Karpoori Thakur school of politics and is among the few RJD leaders who has remained firmly with the party even when the chips were down . He was a minister for 15 years in the Lalu Prasad-Rabri Devi regime and remains one of the most trusted leaders in the RJD and has been state president of the party for the last five years. Two years ago, Lalu had "overlooked" his name for the Legislative Council, angering Purbey's supporters. But patience has finally paid for Purbey.

Sanjay Paswan, a Patna University teacher who has written several books on Dalits, joined the BJP in 1994 and became an MP from Nawada (then a reserved seat) and a Union minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. Considered a good orator he was deemed a potential threat to other leading leaders in the BJP, and after losing in the Lok Sabha election in 2004 and denied any responsibility he flirted with the RJD , the Congress and the LJP to finally to return to the BJP in 2008. It has taken the BJP 10 years to recognise that he needs to be given responsibility.

Prem Chandra Mishra was the NSUI state president during the 1980s when the Congress was still a prominent political force in Bihar.

He, however, did not have luck with electoral politics; he was defeated twice as a Congress candidate from the Madhubani Assembly seat.

He briefly flirted with the then newly formed Samata Party in the late 1990s and Nitish even made him state chief of the party's youth wing. Mishra, however, returned to the Congress and has had his ups and down with the party for the last 18 years.

A few years ago, he was enlisted by the All India Congress Committee as one of its spokespersons. He has stuck to his job and beaten the state party president Kaukab Qaudri to be selected for the sole seat the Congress will get in the Council.

The results of four of the 11 Council seats up for grabs are as good as known: Nitish, Rabri, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi and health minister Mangal Pandey.

"We got little known politicians like Rameshwar Mahto, Khalid Anwar and Khursheed Md Mohsin, but it is gratifying that we got leaders like these three," remarked a senior Congress leader, pointing out that Purbey, Paswan and Mishra are all good orators.