The ruling grand alliance (GA) in Bihar on Friday announced its candidates for five seats in the stateтАЩs Legislative Council from teachersтАЩ and graduate constituencies where elections and a bypoll are due to be held on March 31.
Of the five seats, biennial polls to fill up vacancies arising because of members retiring in May 2023 will be held four graduate and teachersтАЩ constituencies тАФ Saran (graduate) Gaya (graduate), Gaya (teachers) and Kosi (teachers).
In one seat, Saran teachersтАЩ constituency, bypoll will be held on March 31 to fill the vacancy created by the death of former MLC Kedarnath Pandey of the CPI, who died in October last year.
Prominent candidates announced for the seats include Puneet Kumar Singh, son of RJD state president Jagdanand Singh, as the RJD nominee for Gaya graduate seat, and Anand Pushkar, son of Kedarnath Pandey, for Saran teachersтАЩ seat. Pushkar, from his fatherтАЩs party CPI, has been made the joint GA candidate.
Of the five seats, chief minister Nitish KumarтАЩs JD(U) is contesting three, while RJD and CPI are in the fray in one each.
тАЬWe have decided candidates on the basis of their performance in previous polls. All decisions have been taken after consultations and consensus among all GA constituents and allies,тАЭ JD(U) state president Umesh Kushwaha said at a press conference held in his party office, which was also attended by RJDтАЩs national general secretary Bhola Yadav, senior Congress leader and MLC Sameer Kumar Singh and other Left leaders.
Asked why Congress and former CM Jitan ManjhiтАЩs HAM( Secular), also constituents of the GA, were not given any seat, their leaders said decisions on candidate selection and seats had been taken for the larger cause of defeating the BJP.
тАЬThere may have been some aspiring candidates in our party for one or two seats, but our ultimate aim is to fight unitedly to defeat the BJP-led NDA candidates in the biennial polls. We are all united in the coalition,тАЭ said Congress MLC Singh.
Shyam Sundar, spokesperson of the HAM(S), said his party would extend all support to GA candidates.
RJDтАЩs Bhola Yadav said all five seats were contested by candidates of various parties as joint GA nominees.
Asked about ticket to RJD state presidentтАЩs son, Yadav said Puneet Singh had contested the seat earlier too and had been active in the constituency. тАЬWe have decided candidates on the criteria of who had come first or second,тАЭ he said.
The other GA candidates are Virendra Narayan Yadav of JD(U) for Saran graduatesтАЩ seat, Sanjeev Shyam Singh of JD(U) for Gaya teachersтАЩ seat and Dr Sanjeev Kumar Singh of JD(U) for Kosi teachersтАЩ seat
BJP names four candidates
Meanwhile, the opposition BJP too announced its candidates for four out of five seats тАФ Awadhesh Narayan Singh for Gaya graduate seat, Mahachandra Prasad Singh for Saran graduate seat, Ranjan Kumar for Kosi teachersтАЩ seat and Dharmendra Singh for Saran teachersтАЩ seat where the bypoll would be held.
The party has not yet announced its nominee for Gaya teachersтАЩ seat.
Outgoing members
The four MLCs whose term ends May 8 this year are тАФ Virendra Narayan Yadav from Saran graduate constituency, Awadesh Narayan Singh from Gaya graduate constituency, Sanjeev Shyam Singh from Gaya teachersтАЩ constituency and Sanjeev Kumar Singh from Kosi teachersтАЩ constituency.
Out of four seats, JD(U) has three. All the three outgoing members of JD(U) have been given tickets this time also.
In the Saran teachersтАЩ constituency- where bypoll will be held, the winning candidate will have a truncated term of around three-and-a-half years, till November 16, 2026.
The election schedule
The notification for the biennial polls and the bypoll was issued on March 6 and last date of nomination is on March 13.
The counting of votes will be held on April 5.
Who are the voters
In graduate constituencies, those having a graduate degree are eligible and could be enrolled as voters.
In teachersтАЩ constituencies, all teachers from class 8 and up to college/university level, working in government institutions or private education institutions having affiliation from recognised boards/universities, can enrol as voters.
The election commission updates the votersтАЩ list before conducting polls.
In Gaya and Saran graduate constituencies, the total number of voters stand at 228,050 while in two teachersтАЩ constituencies of Kosi and Gaya, the figure is 37,057.
