Bihar RS Bypolls: BJP Picks Former Deputy CM Sushil Modi For Rajya Sabha By-Election

The bypoll will be held for the Parliamentary seat which fell vacant after demise of deceased Lok Janshakti Party leader and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has picked former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Sushil Modi as its candidate for the upcoming bypolls in the state. Sushil Modi has been denied a berth in the newly formed NDA cabinet. The bypoll will be held for the Parliamentary seat which was occupied by the late Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan. It fell vacant on October 8 after the demise of Paswan. The bypoll is scheduled on December 14 and counting of votes will be done on the same day. Notably, the elected candidate will be the third occupant of the same berth in the present tenure. BJP national general secretary Arun Singh said the party's Central Election Committee has finalised the name of Sushil Kumar Modi for the Rajya Sabha by-election in Bihar. The last date to file nominations for the only Rajya Sabha seat in Bihar is December 3. With the LJP out of the Bihar NDA after its decision to fight on its own in a bid to target Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led JD(U), a BJP ally, the saffron party has decided to reclaim the seat which it had offered to Paswan from its quota. The BJP leadership had decided to not have Modi, one of its most prominent leaders in Bihar, continue as deputy minister in the state government after the recent assembly polls. It instead chose two other leaders, Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi, as his replacement in what was seen as an attempt by the party to infuse a new crop of leadership in the state.