Patna:
Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party has found a toehold in the upper house of the Bihar legislature as well, with its candidate winning the election from the Darbhanga Teachers' constituency. Suresh Prasad Rai has won by 324 votes, beating Congress's sitting MLC Madan Mohan Jha. Of the eight Bihar Legislative Council seats that went to polls, the state's ruling NDA appears set to win five seats, two went to Independents and one to Jan Suraaj, which won a seat in the assembly in the recently concluded bye-elections. Kishor, political strategist-turned MLA, represents Bankipur in the state assembly.
Rai, who had previously finished as the runner-up while contesting as a BJP candidate, took an early lead in the first-preference votes and maintained it throughout. Jha left the counting center even before the counting was over.
In this constituency, the Congress, Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal, and the CPM were all in the fray and the three-way contest worked to the advantage of Jan Suraaj.
During the Bihar Assembly elections, parties within the Grand Alliance (Mahagathbandhan) engaged in 'friendly fights' - contesting against each other - across nearly a dozen seats. The NDA candidates emerged victorious in all those instances.
Still, history repeated itself for the Grand Alliance.
During the Legislative Council elections, the Congress and RJD once again found themselves pitted against each other. Both parties fielded candidates in the Patna Teachers', Patna Graduates', Darbhanga Teachers', Darbhanga Graduates', and Kosi Graduates' constituencies.
While the RJD held no seats, the Congress held one - the Darbhanga Teachers' constituency.
Although the RJD had initially not fielded a candidate for this seat, they subsequently nominated Kumar Raut after the Congress decided to field candidates across five constituencies.
The CPM, meanwhile, had announced Ramdev Rai as its candidate.
Rai of Jan Suraaj received 2,574 votes, Madan Mohan Jha 2,187, and Ramdev Rai 1,498. RJD candidate Kumar Raut has secured 126 votes.
Jha, who won this seat in the last two elections, has also served as the state president of the Congress and as a minister in the Mahagathbandhan government. With his defeat, the Congress will be left with only one seat.
In the Darbhanga Graduates' constituency, three parties from the Mahagathbandhan are pitted against each other.