PATNA: Ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Monday swept the Rajya Sabha election in Bihar by winning all five seats with chief minister and JD (U) supremo Nitish Kumar and BJP national president Nitin Nabin being elected to the Upper House of parliament in a keenly contested poll.
Other NDA candidates who won the RS polls in Bihar are Union Minister for Agriculture and farmers welfare Ram Nath Thakur from JD (U), Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) president and former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha and former MLA Shivesh Kumar from BJP.
While three MLAs from Congress – Surendra Prasad Kushwaha (Valmiki Nagar), Manoj Biswas (Forbesganj), Manohar Prasad Singh (Manihari) did not cast their votes in the RS polls, RJD MLA from Dhaka Faisal Rahman also abstained from the voting, dashing Mahagathbandhan candidate and prominent businessman, Amarendra Dhari Singh’s all hopes of romping to victory, despite numbers heavily stacked against him.
All the 202 MLAs of NDA cast their votes. On the contrary, only 37 out of 41 legislators of Opposition parties turned up to cast their votes. The three legislators from Congress and one from RJD remained incommunicado during the voting for the five seats. The term of all five sitting MPs will expire on April 9. Ahead of the elections, Mahagathbandhan had kept all its MLAs at a posh hotel in Patna to prevent poaching attempts in the elections.