Polls announced for 11 seats of Bihar Legislative Council, including the one held by Nitish

Patna: The Election Commission on Friday announced biennial polls for 11 seats of Bihar legislative council, including the one held by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the terms of which would have expired in two months.

Besides Kumar, those whose current tenure ends on May 6 include former chief minister Rabri Devi (RJD) and her party colleague Ram Chandra Purve.

Notifications for elections to the 11 seats will be issued on March 4 and nomination papers will have to be filed by March 11. The last date for withdrawal of nomination papers is March 14.

Members of the state legislative assembly will elect candidates for these 11 seats on March 21 when counting of votes will take place in the evening and shall have to be completed by March 23.

BJP holds three of these seats, its representatives being former Union ministers Sanjay Paswan and Syed Shahnawaz Hussain and former state minister Mangal Pandey.

Only one seat, represented by Prem Chandra Mishra, is held by the Congress, which is an RJD ally.

The JD(U), headed by the chief minister, held a lion's share. Besides Kumar, other party leaders whose tenure is about to end include Sanjay Kumar Jha, who recently got elected to the Rajya Sabha.

Besides, terms of JD(U) MLCs Khalid Anwar and Rameshwar Mahto is coming to a close.

One seat is held by Santosh Suman, a minister and son of ex-CM Jitan Ram Manjhi, the founder of Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM).

Although HAM does not have adequate number of MLAs, the seat for Suman was earned by Manjhi in exchange for a tie-up with the RJD in 2018, though the former CM returned to the NDA two years later.