As the largest opposition party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, has a strength of only 22 members in the Assembly of 243, the Congress has four and the LJP and the CPI one each, the opposition is not in position to send any member to the Upper House of Parliament and Bihar Assembly as a minimum of 35 votes would be required by each candidate to win. The JD(U) has 118 legislators while the BJP 91, that is, total 209. To win all the six seats, the NDA will require 210 votes and it can easily manage one of any Independent.

Those retiring from the Rajya Sabha are Anil Sahni, Mahendra Prasad and Ali Anwar Ansari, (all Janata Dal (United), Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP) and Jabir Husain and Rajniti Prasad (both RJD). They will complete their term on April 2.The NDA leaders indicated that four seats will go to the JD(U) and two to the BJP.The names of the candidates are not yet clear.

But reports say that the State JD(U) president Vashisht Narayan Singh may be one of them whose name is under consideration. Rumours are also doing the rounds that a couple of journalists are also likely to be nominated on Janata Dal (United) ticket.Besides, there is likelihood that leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley may opt for Bihar for the re-election instead of Gujarat, which he till now represents.

At present Jaitley is more close to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar than his Gujarat counterpart, Narendra Modi. The BJP national general secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad is expected to be nominated for the third time though the party has adopted the principle of not sending any candidate after two consecutive terms.

The last date for filing nomination is March 19 and withdrawal on March 22.

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