12 nominated to Bihar Upper House; BJP, JD(U) get equal share of seats

The nomination to 12 seats of the legislative council was stuck due to lack of agreement on its distribution among the NDA constituents.

With the Bihar cabinet on Tuesday authorising chief minister Nitish Kumar for short listing names for nomination to the Bihar Legislative Council, the long held up decision was promptly taken on Wednesday with the announcement of 12 names. The list has been approved by the governor’s secretariat and notified in the gazette. The swearing in is likely soon, said officials.

Patna-March.14,2021-Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar felicitates to RLSP president Upendra Kushwaha after the party merged with JDU during Milan Samaroh at JDU office in Patna. Bihar India on Sunday March 14,2021.(Photo by Santosh Kumar /Hindustan Times)

The leaders chosen for nomination from the governor’s quota include two ministers – Ashok Choudhary and Janak Ram, who were not members of any house. Upendra Kushwaha, who recently joined the JD-U, has also been chosen for nomination.

Others selected for nomination include Prof Ram Bachan Rai, Sanjay Kumar Singh, Lalan Kumar Sarraf, Rajendra Prasad Gupta, Sanjay Singh, Devesh Kumar, Pramod Kumar, Ghanshyam Thakur and Nivedita Singh. Both BJP and JD-U have shared six seats each.

Since the much-delayed cabinet expansion of the Nitish government ahead of the budget session, all eyes were on the nomination for the 12 seats of the council, which have been vacant since May 2020.

Top leaders of the alliance said that the two main constituents – JD-U and the BJP were in agreement on the formula adopted for sharing of the 12 seats.

Former Union minister Shahnawaz Hussain and former BJP MP Janak Ram are also in the cabinet. Ram is not a member of any house and he needed to be nominated to the Upper House. Hussain was elected to the council earlier.

Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) leader Mukesh Sahni, who is minister of animal husbandry and fisheries, was elected to the council earlier this year on the BJP seat from the Vidhan Sabha.

The nomination to 12 seats of the legislative council was stuck due to lack of agreement on its distribution among the three constituents of the NDA – the BJP, JD-U and the LJP. Now, the new government has got four constituents and the equations have changed.

Bihar is one among only seven states with a bi-cameral legislature, having both a lower house (Legislative Assembly) and an upper house (Legislative Council). The council has a strength of 75 members.