Nitish, Rabri set to be elected unopposed in Bihar Council polls

All eleven candidates including Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar are set to be elected unopposed on Thursday to the Bihar Legislative Council, officials said.

Nitish, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and former Chief Minister Rabri Devi, and eight others had filed nominations for the April 26 Bihar Legislative Council polls.

They are likely to be elected unopposed on Thursday afternoon at the end of the deadline for the withdrawal of nominations, officials said.

"The formal announcement of their unopposed elections to Bihar Legislative Council would be made at 3 p.m. The scrutiny of nomination papers has been over two days ago and there are eleven candidates for eleven seats. There is no possibility of polls," said an official of the Election Commission here.

Nitish Kumar, also the president of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, filed nomination papers last Monday for the Bihar Legislative Council polls.

Health Minister Mangal Pandey, along with three ruling and one opposition candidate, also filed his nomination on the last day for filing nominations.

Others who filed their papers include BJP leader and former Union Minister Sanjay Paswan, and JD-U's Rameshwar Mahto and Khalid Anwar.

Opposition Congress leader Prem Chand Mishra also filed nomination papers on Monday after his party, which is part of the Rashtriya Janata Dal-led Grand Alliance along with the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), announced his name on Sunday.

On Saturday, former Chief Minister Rabri Devi, Santosh Manjhi, son of another former Chief Minister and HAM chief Jitan Ram Manjhi, RJD state President Ram Chander Purve and Mohsin Qadir filed their nomination papers.

--IANS

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