NDA eyes all 10 council seats; Nishant, Deepak set for debut

Patna: The forthcoming election to 10 Bihar legislative council seats from the assembly quota next month is likely to mark the political debut of former CM Nitish Kumar’s son Nishant Kumar and Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) chief Upendra Kushwaha’s son and panchayati raj minister Deepak Prakash, NDA sources said.The Election Commission is expected to announce the poll schedule in the last week of May. However, the NDA has already begun preparations to win all 10 seats and deny the RJD even a single berth.Nine of the 10 seats will fall vacant on June 28. The tenth seat became vacant after Nitish resigned from the council following his move to the Rajya Sabha and subsequent exit from the post of chief minister.Of the 10 seats, five belong to the JD(U), two each to the BJP and RJD, and one to the Congress. Apart from Nitish, the JD(U) seats are currently held by Ghulam Gaus, Bhishm Sahani, Kumud Verma and Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, who was later elected MLA from Jagdishpur and became a minister.The BJP’s two seats have fallen vacant after CM Samrat Choudhary was elected MLA from Tarapur in the 2025 assembly polls and the term of senior BJP leader Sanjay Mayukh is ending on June 28.Similarly, the terms of RJD members Mohammad Farooq and Sunil Kumar Singh, along with Congress member Samir Kumar Singh, are also ending on June 28.With 25 MLAs required to elect one candidate, the RJD, which has 25 MLAs, is hoping to retain at least one seat with support from grand alliance partners. In contrast, the NDA enjoys the backing of 202 MLAs in the 243-member assembly and can comfortably secure nine seats. However, it is aggressively attempting to capture the tenth seat as well.“The NDA does stand a chance to win the tenth seat because one does not know how the RJD and other grand alliance MLAs would behave on polling day. The state has seen how four of their MLAs abstained from voting and helped the BJP candidate win the recent Rajya Sabha poll,” BJP spokesperson and former MLA Prem Ranjan Patel said.Sources said the NDA is keen to win all 10 seats to accommodate allies seeking representation. While the Hindustani Awam Morcha’s demand may be deferred, the alliance is expected to adjust seats for the JD(U), BJP, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and RLM.