JD(U) leader Anil Hegde was on Monday declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar in a bypoll which was necessitated by the death of a party MP.
Mr Hegde collected his winner's certificate from the Assembly premises and drove straight to the residence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to thank the party's de facto leader who sprang a surprise by choosing the top-ranking but low key office bearer for a Rajya Sabha ticket.
The by-election was necessitated by the death of Mahendra Prasad in December last year.
The tenure of Karnataka-born Hegde, who was introduced to Chief Minister Kumar by the late George Fernandes, himself a Kannadiga who made Bihar his adoptive home, will continue till 2024.
Meanwhile, all eyes are now fixed on the five seats in the biennial polls in the state for which the process will be set in motion with issuing of notification on Tuesday.
Among the seats for which elections are due, two each are held by the JD(U) and ally BJP while one was with the RJD.
However, on account of diminution in its strength in the assembly, the JD(U) is likely to settle with just one seat this time, which will be the RJD's gain.
The primary claimant for the JD(U) ticket is Union minister RCP Singh, whose term is about to expire. A former UP cadre IAS officer who took voluntary retirement to enter politics, Mr Singh has experienced a meteoric rise since his induction into the JD(U) in 2010.
Mr Singh belongs to the same Kurmi caste and Nalanda district as Chief Minister Kumar whom he succeeded as the party president last year. Another Rajya Sabha term for him would have been considered a done deal but for his troubled equations with current party president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan, who has been the Chief Minister's trusted political aide for three decades.
In the RJD, one of the seats is almost certain to go to Misa Bharti, the eldest child of party supremo Lalu Prasad and former Chief Minister Rabri Devi. She happens to be the only one among his parents' nine daughters to be active in politics.
The party is yet to make up its mind on the candidate for the second seat it is poised to bag.
The BJP's election committee meeting is underway and it will send the names of its prospective candidates to the high command in New Delhi from where a final announcement will be made.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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