Of the eight Bihar Legislative Council seats that went to polls, the state’s ruling NDA appears set to win five seats, two went to Independents and one to Jan Suraaj, which won a seat in the assembly in the recently concluded bye-elections. Prashant Kishore’s Jan Suraaj Party has found a toehold in the upper house of the Bihar legislature as well, with its candidate winning the election from the Darbhanga Teachers’ constituency. Kishor, political strategist-turned MLA, represents Bankipur in the state assembly.
Suresh Prasad Rai has won by 324 votes, beating Congress’s sitting MLC Madan Mohan Jha.
Jha, who won this seat in the last two elections, has also served as the state president of the Congress and as a minister in the Mahagathbandhan government. In this constituency, the Congress, Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, and the CPM were all in the fray and the three-way contest worked to the advantage of Jan Suraaj. During the Legislative Council elections, the Congress and RJD once again found themselves pitted against each other. Both parties fielded candidates in the Patna Teachers’, Patna Graduates’, Darbhanga Teachers’, Darbhanga Graduates’, and Kosi Graduates’ constituencies. the Congress held one – the Darbhanga Teachers’ constituency While the RJD held no seats. With his defeat, the Congress will be left with only one seat. In the Darbhanga Graduates’ constituency, three parties from the Mahagathbandhan are pitted against each other.
