BJP picks BCI chairman Manan Mishra for RS

Mishra, a native of Gopalganj in Bihar, emerged as a dark horse after the high-level meeting of BJP leaders in New Delhi.

The BJP on Tuesday announced the name of Manan Kumar Mishra, a senior advocate in the Supreme Court and chairman of the Bar Council of India (BCI), as the second Rajya Sabha candidate of the NDA from Bihar.

Bar Council of India chairman Manan Kumar Mishra (PTI)

The name of former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha had already been announced earlier as the NDA candidate.

Both will file their nomination papers on Wednesday, the last date for the exercise. The papers will be scrutinised on August 22. The bypolls for the two seats are scheduled on September 3.

The two seats fell vacant following the election of BJP’s Vivek Thakur from Nawada and RJD’s Misa Bharti from Pataliputra in the Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year.

Given the numbers of MLAs in the state who form the electoral college for the election of a Rajya Sabha MP, both seats are certain to go to the NDA (National Democratic Alliance).

While Thakur’s seat has two years of the term left, Bharti’s seat has four-year term left. In the bypolls, both the seats will be treated individually, as had been clarified by the Election Commission of India earlier.

Mishra, a native of Gopalganj who was unanimously elected as the member representative to the BCI for a third consecutive time, emerged as a dark horse after the high-level meeting in New Delhi.

Both the deputy chief ministers of Bihar — Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha — and a few other senior BJP leaders were in New Delhi to attend the meeting.

Mishra has been the BCI chairman for a decade. He will have a tenure of four years, as he will replace Bharti in the Rajya Sabha.

Kushwaha, who will replace Vivek Thakur in the RS, will have a tenure of two years, a senior BJP leader said, requesting anonymity.

This will be his second stint in the Rajya Sabha. Earlier, he has been the member of the Lok Sabha, Bihar legislative assembly as well as the Council.