Prashant Kishore's Jan Suraj Party has also registered its presence in the Legislative Council, the upper house of the Bihar Legislature. Party candidate Suresh Prasad Rai has won from Darbhanga Teachers Constituency. He defeated Congress's sitting MLC Madan Mohan Jha by 324 votes.
Of the eight seats of Bihar Legislative Council for which elections were held, the ruling NDA appeared to be moving towards victory on five seats. Independent candidates won two seats, while one seat went to Jan Suraj. This is another important achievement for Jan Suraj after winning an assembly seat in the recently concluded by-election. Political strategist turned MLA Prashant Kishor represents Bankipur in the state assembly.
Suresh Prasad Rai, who had earlier stood second while contesting the election as a BJP candidate, this time managed to take an early lead in the counting of first preference votes. He maintained his lead during the counting of votes. Meanwhile, Madan Mohan Jha walked out of the center even before the counting of votes was completed.
Candidates from Congress, Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) were also in the fray in this constituency. Jan Suraj got the benefit of the competition between three parties.
During the Bihar Assembly elections, the constituent parties of the Grand Alliance had fielded candidates against each other on about a dozen seats. NDA candidates were victorious on these seats.
In the Legislative Council elections also, mutual competition was seen between the parties of the Grand Alliance. Congress and RJD fielded candidates against each other in Patna Teacher, Patna Graduate, Darbhanga Teacher, Darbhanga Graduate and Kosi Graduate constituencies.
RJD previously had no seats in these constituencies, while Congress had one seat in Darbhanga teachers constituency. After Congress decided to field candidates in five constituencies, RJD also fielded Kumar Raut on Darbhanga teachers seat. Earlier RJD had not fielded a candidate on this seat. At the same time, CPI(M) had declared Ramdev Rai as its candidate.
In Darbhanga teachers constituency, Suresh Prasad Rai of Jan Suraj got 2,574 votes, while Madan Mohan Jha of Congress got 2,187 votes and Ramdev Rai of CPI(M) got 1,498 votes. RJD candidate Kumar Raut got 126 votes.
Madan Mohan Jha had won this seat in the last two elections. He has also been the state president of Bihar Congress and a minister in the grand alliance government. After his defeat, Congress is said to be left with only one seat in the Legislative Council.
Darbhanga graduate constituency also saw a contest between the candidates of the three parties of the Grand Alliance.
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