EC notifies legislative council polls; NDA eyes eight seats

Patna: The Election Commission on Monday issued the notification for elections to 10 seats of the legislative council from the Assembly quota, including biennial elections to nine seats and a bypoll to one seat.

With the issuance of the notification, the process of filing nomination papers by prospective candidates has commenced.

According to the schedule, the last date for filing nominations is June 8. Scrutiny of nomination papers will be held on June 9, while June 11 is the last date for withdrawal of candidature. Polling for the nine biennial elections and the bypoll will be held on June 18, and the results will be declared the same day.

The biennial elections have become necessary as the terms of nine sitting MLCs are set to expire on June 28. The bypoll is being held to fill the vacancy created after former CM and JD(U) national president Nitish Kumar was elected to the Rajya Sabha.

A candidate requires the support of 25 MLAs to secure election to the council. Given its numerical strength of 202 MLAs, the NDA is comfortably placed to win eight of the nine seats being contested through the biennial elections. The remaining seat is expected to go to the opposition RJD, which has 25 MLAs of its own besides the support of its allies. Voting for the bypoll seat will be held separately by NDA legislators.

Of the nine seats falling vacant this month, four are currently held by JD(U) members — Ghulam Gaus, Kumud Verma, Bhishma Sahani and Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, who has since become an MLA.

Two of the vacant seats belong to the BJP and were held by Samrat Choudhary, who also became an MLA and is currently the chief minister, and Sanjay Prakash alias Sanjay Mayukh.

The remaining seats are held by Mohammad Farooq and Sunil Kumar Singh of the RJD and Samir Kumar Singh of the Congress.

While the opposition camp appears to have little difficulty over seat-sharing for the one seat likely to come its way, negotiations within the NDA are expected to attract greater attention. The ruling alliance comprises five parties — BJP with 89 MLAs, JD(U) with 85, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) with 19, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) with five and Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) with four.

According to information available in the public domain, the BJP and JD(U) have each staked claim to three of the eight NDA seats, while one seat each is expected to go to the LJP(RV) and RLM. However, leaders of HAM(S) have also been pressing for a share in the allotment.

“The NDA partners are organically united, and we will resolve every issue amicably, when we sit together,” JD(U) working president and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Kumar Jha said on Monday.