Patna: In a major relief to JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar, Pavan Verma and Ghulam Rasool Balyavi on Thursday won the Bihar Rajya Sabha elections. Â Balyavi got 123 votes while Verma got 122 votes. However, BJP supported independent candidate could get only 108 votes.
Voting in the by-election for two Rajya Sabha seats from Bihar began with nearly a dozen rebel legislators of the ruling JD(U) voting for two independent candidates instead of the party’s official nominees, a leader here said.Â
“Cross-voting in the by-election is along expected lines as the opposition BJP is encouraging it by backing rebel JD(U) legislators and allegedly using money power,” Â JD(U) had said.Â
However, top party leaders, including national president Sharad Yadav and former chief minister Nitish Kumar, were confident after Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad announced his party’s support to the JD(U) candidates.Â
Lalu Prasad said his party supported JD(U)’s nominees to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party’s game plan.Â
It was probably for the first time in two decades that Nitish Kumar publicly sought support from the RJD chief after he and Lalu Prasad parted ways in 1994.Â
Lalu Prasad’s decision to support JD(U) is seen here as the first step towards a likely realignment of RJD-JD(U) to take on a surging Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar, despite reservations expressed by some RJD legislators and senior leaders like Raghuvansh Prasad Singh.Â
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