JD(U) likely to change 3 retiring Rajya Sabha members with new faces

PATNA: The ruling JD(U) today indicated all three retiring Rajya Sabha members will be replaced with new faces and asked to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Shivanand Tiwari, bureaucrat-turned-politician, N K Singh and Shabir Ali are among the five Rajya Sabha members from Bihar whose term is coming to an end.

Sources in the party said while Tiwari was expected to be fielded from his home constituency Buxar, N K Singh would contest from Banka and Shabir Ali from Sheohar Lok Sabha constituencies.

When contacted, JD(U) state president Bashistha Narayan Singh told PTI that party president Sharad Yadav, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and other senior party leaders would deliberate on the names and might take a decision on it by tomorrow.

He feigned ignorance about the new faces who could get chance to enter the Upper House.

With 118 MLAs in the Bihar Assembly, JD(U) is in a position to retain the three seats in the RS.

The other two members retiring from Bihar are former Union Minister and BJP leader C P Thakur and RJD leader Prem Chand Gupta.

Gupta, who was a Union Minister in UPA-I and a three-term RS member, is unlikely to make it for the fourth time.

With its strength of 91 MLAs, BJP would get two seats from the state.