The Janata Dal (U) on Tuesday named party leader and former Minister Sanjay Jha as its candidate for Rajya Sabha election. Mr. Jha is considered to be a close associate of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
“Hon’ble national president of Janata Dal(U) & Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar has decided on Sanjay Kumar Jha(national general secretary and former Minister, govt. of Bihar) as the candidate of the party from Bihar State for the biennial Rajya Sabha election 2024”, said a release by JD(U) general secretary and MLC Afaque Ahmad Khan.
Mr. Jha was the Water Resources Department and Information and Public Relation Department Minister in the previous mahagathbandhan (grand alliance)government and an MLC since 2019. Hailing from Jhanjharpur in Madhubani district, he has been a Minister in Nitish Kumar cabinet three times. He contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Darbhanga seat but had lost the election.
He had started his political career with the BJP but later joined the JD(U). He is known as an upper caste Brahmin face of the JD(U) in Mithilanchal area.
The buzz in political circles of Bihar is that it was Mr Jha who had played a crucial role in bringing back Mr Kumar and his party JD(U) to the BJP fold to form the NDA government in the State on January 28.
Earlier, the BJP had named its State vice-president and MLC Bhim Singh; president of the party’s state women’s cell president Dharamsheela Gupta as its candidates.
Six Rajya Sabha seats are falling vacant in Bihar. Elections for these six seats is scheduled to be held on February 27. Out of the six seats, three each are held by the ruling NDA and the Opposition parties.
The Rajya Sabha members whose terms are ending include Vashistha Narayan Singh and Anil Hegde from JD-U, Sushil Kumar Modi (BJP), Manoj Kumar Jha and Ashfaq Karim (both from the RJD) and State Congress president Akhilesh Prasad Singh.
