The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday named former Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha seat from the state which had fallen vacant after the death of LJP founder Ram Vilas Paswan.
With the NDA having a majority in the state assembly, Sushil Modi's election to the upper house is all but certain. According to reports, he could be made a minister in the Union cabinet in the likely reshuffle.
The BJP had offered the seat to Paswan from its quota, but now with the LJP out of the NDA, the saffron party decided to reclaim the seat.
Sushil Modi had not been retained in the new Bihar dispensation after serving as the deputy chief minister of the state for close to 15 years. He had been Nitish Kumar's deputy in all the NDA government he has led in Bihar.
The BJP replaced Sushil Modi, bringing in two new faces for the deputy CM's post—multiple-term BJP MLAs Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi.
Kumar and Sushil Modi's pair as CM and Deputy CM since 2005, barring a 20-month gap when Kumar was in alliance with the RJD, had been the hallmark of the ruling coalition in the state.
The smooth sail of the successive JD(U)-BJP governments in the state has, to a large extent, been attributed to the good chemistry the two leaders shared.
With inputs from PTI
