Rajya Sabha polls in Bihar: Six in fray for five seats, polling on March 16

Patna, Mar 9 (PTI) Six candidates -- five from the ruling NDA and one from the Opposition -- are in the fray for five Rajya Sabha seats in Bihar, where biennial polls are scheduled for next week, an official said on Monday.

According to Bihar Vidhan Sabha secretary Khyati Singh, none of the six, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and BJP president Nitin Nabin, withdrew their nomination papers, "necessitating voting for the first time in the state in more than a decade." Monday was the last day for withdrawal of nomination papers.

Voting last took place for Rajya Sabha polls in Bihar in 2014, when JD(U) candidates diplomat-turned-politician Pavan Kumar Varma and Gulam Rasool Balyawi overcame cross-voting by party MLAs to defeat BJP-backed independents.

NDA insiders are hopeful of winning all five seats despite the opposition RJD entering the fray.

Kumar and Nabin had filed their papers on March 5 in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Other NDA candidates are Union Minister Ram Nath Thakur seeking a hat-trick, RLM president Upendra Kushwaha aiming for a second consecutive term, and BJP state general secretary Shivesh Kumar making his parliamentary debut.

Kumar announced his decision to enter the Rajya Sabha last week, bringing the curtains down on his 20-year tenure as the state's longest-serving CM.

RJD's Amarendra Dhari Singh, an MP and businessman-turned-politician, is also in the fray.

The RJD held two of the five Rajya Sabha seats in the state for which polls are being held.

But in view of its decimation in the 2025 Assembly polls, where it managed only 25 seats, the RJD chose to contest only one, dropping Prem Chand Gupta, a former Union minister and key aide of party supremo Lalu Prasad.

The NDA enjoys a brute majority in the Assembly, though its tally of 202 in the 243-member House falls three short of the number needed to secure all five Rajya Sabha seats.

The RJD enjoys the backing of 10 other MLAs, all owing allegiance to the Mahagathbandhan, and hopes to make up for the deficit of six votes with the help of Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's BSP, though neither party has, so far, declared its support for any of the Rajya Sabha candidates. PTI PKD MNB