A day after smoothly sailing through the trust vote, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has decided to send former minister from JDU Sanjay Jha to Rajya Sabha, sources said. The National Democratic Alliance government in Bihar, led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, on Monday won the trust vote in the state assembly, with 129 MLAs voting in favour of the motion, amid a walkout by all non-NDA members. Sanjay Jha is said to be a close confidant of Nitish Kumar.
Out of the half-a-dozen seats, for which filing of nomination papers will come to a close on February 15, three each are held by the state's ruling NDA and the ‘Mahagathbandhan’, which has been pushed back to the opposition camp as a result of the latest volte-face by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) president. The MPs whose current term is nearing expiry are Vashishth Narayan Singh and Aneel Hegde (JDU), Sushil Kumar Modi (BJP), Manoj Kumar Jha and Ashfaq Karim (RJD) and state Congress president Akhilesh Prasad Singh.
Voting on February 27
Voting for the Rajya Sabha seats is scheduled for February 27. As per the established practice, while voting will take place from 9 am to 4 pm, the counting will be held on the same day from 5 pm onwards. Given the current composition of the 243-strong assembly, the NDA can easily get three of its nominees elected, with a few more votes to spare.
