Patna, March 14 JD(U) National Working President Sanjay Kumar Jha on Saturday claimed that all NDA candidates in the Rajya Sabha polls in Bihar, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, will "win by a huge margin".
Jha made the remark just two days before the Rajya Sabha polls in Bihar on March 16.
Six candidates—five from the ruling NDA and one from the opposition—are in the fray for five Rajya Sabha seats in Bihar. Kumar and BJP national president Nitin Nabin are also in the fray. RJD's Amarendra Dhari Singh, a businessman-turned-politician, is also in the fray.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary at his residence in Patna, Jha said, "We don't know what opposition leaders are claiming about the outcome of the Rajya Sabha polls in Bihar…Let me make it very clear that all NDA candidates in the Rajya Sabha polls will win by a huge margin."
The NDA alliance partners in Bihar held separate meetings with their respective MLAs to discuss the strategy ahead of the polls.
While the state BJP's core committee meeting was held at the party office in Patna, Union Minister Chirag Paswan's LJP (RV) also called a separate meeting of its MLAs. Union Minister Harsh Malhotra and Chhattisgarh deputy chief minister Vijay Sharma, who are central observers for the Rajya Sabha polls in Bihar, were present in both meetings.
Another such meeting took place at the residence of Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) chief Upendra Kushwaha in the state capital on Saturday. Kushwaha, an NDA candidate, is seeking a second consecutive term in the Upper House.
Taking to reporters after the BJP's state core committee meeting, Bihar minister Dilip Jaiswal, told reporters, "The meeting was called to inform and train newly elected party MLAs about voting in the Rajya Sabha election."
Another crucial meeting of all NDA MLAs will be held at the official residence of senior JD(U) leader and Bihar Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Vijay Kumar Choudhry, in the state capital, a day before the voting on Sunday.
Besides Nabin and Kumar, other NDA candidates in the fray are Union Minister Ram Nath Thakur of the JD(U), who aims at a hat-trick, Kushwaha, and BJP state general secretary Shivesh Kumar, a former MLA, hoping to make his debut in Parliament.
RJD's Amarendra Dhari Singh, an MP and businessman-turned-politician, is also in the fray. The RJD held two of the five Rajya Sabha seats in Bihar for which polls are being held. But in view of its decimation in the 2025 Assembly polls, where it managed only 25 seats, the RJD chose to contest only one seat.
The NDA enjoys a brute majority in the Assembly, though its tally of 202 in the 243-member House falls three short of the number needed to secure all five Rajya Sabha seats.
To win a Rajya Sabha seat, one needs the support of at least 41 MLAs in the 243-member Bihar Assembly.