BJP Picks Sushil Modi For Rajya Sabha Bypoll in Bihar

File image of Sushil Kumar Modi.

(Photo: PTI)

The BJP has picked former Bihar deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi for the Rajya Sabha by-election in Bihar set to be held on 14 December.

The Rajya Sabha bypoll will fill the vacant seat left by the demise of LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan.

The term of the Upper House seat that Ram Vilas Paswan occupied till his death on 8 October is till 2 April 2024.

BJP national general secretary Arun Singh said the party's Central Election Committee has finalised the name of Sushil Kumar Modi.

The last date to file nominations for the only Rajya Sabha seat in Bihar is 3 December.

The other names that were doing the rounds included those of BJP national spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, former Bihar deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi and Rituraj Sinha, son of Rajya Sabha member RK Sinha.

BJP seemed to have picked its own leader instead of a LJP candidate to replace Paswan because of his son and new LJP leader Chirag Paswan’s decision to not ally with the NDA during the recent Bihar state elections.

This has had the twofold effect of angering the JD(U), whose seat tally was cut down because of the candidates put up by the LJP, as well as forcing the BJP to have to distance itself from the LJP – 38-year-old Chirag Paswan had insisted throughout his campaign that he wished to join with the BJP to form the government – according to the Hindustan Times.