Rabri Devi Likely to Become Leader of Opposition in Bihar Legislative Council

New Delhi: Rabri Devi’s victory along with two other RJD leaders and ally HAM candidate Santosh Majhi in the recently concluded Bihar Legislative Council elections have brightened her chances of getting the status of Leader of Opposition in the state upper house.

Santosh is the son of Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi. With this, RJD’s tally has gone up to nine in the 75-member house.

Tejaswi Yadav, Rabri’s younger son, is the leader of opposition in the state Assembly. If she is given the status, it will be for the first time in the history of state legislature in Bihar that a mother-son duo will be Leader of Opposition in both houses.

Last year after the split in the grand alliance, the legislative council had rejected RJD’s request to appoint Rabri as the leader of opposition on the plea that the party did not have the required number of members needed for the post. Then, the party had only seven MLCs.

Rabri’s six-year current term in the council is set to expire on May 6.

She along with Ram Chandra Purbey, Syed Khurshid Mohammad Mohsin and Santosh were declared elected unopposed on Thursday. Since there were only 11 nominations for as many vacancies in the state upper house, all the candidates were declared elected unopposed after end of the withdrawal deadline.

Currently, in the 75-member House, JD (U) has 32 members followed by BJP’s 22, RJD nine, Congress three, CPI and LJP 2 each, HAM and RLSP of Union Minister Of State Upendra Kushwaha one each, and three independents 3.

The party said it would send a proposal to the acting chairman Of the Council, Haroon Rashid, to accord the Leader of Opposition status to Rabri.

When contacted, Rashid told CNN-News18 that he would decide on the issues when a proposal reaches him which he is yet to receive from RJD.

The JD (U)- BJP alliance fielded seven candidates which included Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Deputy CM Sushil Modi And health minister Mangal Pandey. The Congress had fielded just one candidate, Prem Chandra Mishra.

The parties made attempts to go with caste equations with JD (U) fielding leaders from minority and kushwaha community and the BJP gave preference to Dalit community. RJD also included a Dalit face by supporting Santosh. Ham recently broke away from NDA in Bihar and has joined the Mahagatbandhan which is likely to change the political dynamics in Bihar ahead of the national polls and the state elections in 2020.