Patna (Bihar) [India], March 16 : BJP Rajya Sabha candidate from Bihar Shivesh Ram on Monday exuded confidence that all five candidates of NDA, including Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, will secure a comfortable victory as all the MLAs of the alliance are united.
Speaking to the reporters, Shivesh Ram said, "Behind us, Prime Minister Modi is working on the development of the country. All leaders of Bihar are united, and very good results are going to come in the evening. All five NDA candidates are going to win. Victory is absolutely certain because we are united and the opposition is not united, that is what I know," he said.
The biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha to fill 37 seats across 10 states are scheduled on Monday (March 16), with counting of votes set for the same day at 5 pm.
The term of 37 members who were elected from Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Telangana will conclude in the month of April, vacating the seats for new members to be elected.
Out of these, 26 candidates have already secured victory unopposed. Voting will now take place for the remaining 11 seats, including five from Bihar, four from Odisha, and two from Haryana.
From Bihar, NDA candidates include Bihar's longest-tenured Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, RLM chief Upendra Kushwaha, BJP chief Nitin Nabin, Shivesh Ram and Ram Nath Thakur as they eyed all of the five seats.
However, RJD is seeking AIMIM support for its candidate AD Singh, with Tejaswi Yadav expressing confidence that all "secular parties will come together to defeat the BJP" ahead of tomorrow's Rajya Sabha election.
"Akhtarul Iman from the AIMIM party had invited us for Iftar, and we have arrived here today for the Iftar. We have sought support from the AIMIM party, and I am confident that in tomorrow's Rajya Sabha election, all secular parties will come together to defeat the BJP," Yadav said.