Deferred due to Covid-19, polls to nine Bihar Legislative Council seats now on July 6

Notifications would be issued for the polls on June 18, and filing of nomination papers will take place till June 25.

The Election Commission announced on Monday that the elections to nine Bihar Legislative Council seats will be held on July 6, clearing the decks for the polls that were to be held in May but had to be deferred because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Voters in a queue with their voter ID cards as they wait in a queue to cast vote at a polling station in Bihar. (Antosh Kumar/Hindustan Times (Representational image))

According to the Election Commission release announcing the schedule, notifications would be issued for the polls on June 18, and filing of nomination papers will take place till June 25.

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Withdrawal of nominations will be allowed till June 29, while voting will take place by members of the legislative assembly on July 6, followed by counting of votes on the same day.

All the nine seats from the Vidhan Sabha constituency fell vacant on May 6 after expiry of tenures of respective members and these were held by the JD(U)-BJP combine.

However, with the assembly’s changed arithmetic, the ruling coalition may have to concede a few of these to the Rashtriya Janata Dal-led opposition.

The nine MLCs whose terms expired include state cabinet member Ashok Chaudhary, former minister P K Shahi, former Acting Chairman Haroon Rashid (all from JDU) and BJPs national media co-convenor Sanjay Prakash alias Sanjay Mayukh.

Notably, with the expiry of Rashid’s tenure, the upper house of state legislature has been rendered “headless”.

Governor Phagu Chauhan, on the recommendation of the state government, would have to appoint an elected member of the council as the new acting chairperson if the House were to convene for a session.

In the 75-strong Vidhan Parishad, 26 seats are vacant at present, seven of these falling under the “snaatak” (graduate) category, for which schedule is yet to be announced and 10 nominated ones on which the government has to take a call.

As per norms, for voting by assembly members each candidate should secure a number of votes that is equivalent to the effective strength of the Lower House divided by the number of vacant seats in the Upper House.

Effective strength of the 243-strong assembly is 242, one seat is vacant because of the death of RJD MLA Abdul Gafoor in January this year.

The Janata Dal (United) and the Bharatiya Janata Party, besides junior alliance partner Ram Vilas Paswans’ Lok Janshakti Party, have close to 130 seats together.

The RJD-Congress combine has just under 110 and it can look forward to the support of three MLAs of the CPI(ML), besides Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM, which achieved its maiden victory in Bihar in a by-poll last year, and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, founding president of the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and its lone member in the assembly.

Bihar is slated to see the Assembly elections before November 29 of this year.