Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, January 16
Former Union minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet Shahnawaj Hussain, will be the BJP candidate for the by-election for the Bihar Vidhan Parishad.
Hussain, who is national spokesman of the party, would file his papers on Monday.
Vacancy was caused due to resignation of Sushil Kumar Modi who has been elected to Rajya Sabha. For the second seat, Bihar’s animal husbandry minister Mukesh Sahni, President of the Vikashsheel Insaan Party (VIP) would be the BJP nominee.
Vinod Narayan Jha, former public health department minister had resigned following his election to Vidhan Sabha in November.
There is no minority member elected to the state assembly from NDA in the elections held in November. Shahnawaj Hussain may be inducted as cabinet minister in Nitish Kumar ministry, according to the BJP sources here.
Shanawaj had first entered the Lok Sabha from Kishanganj constituency in 1999 and was made minister of state for coal and later promoted as Cabinet minister with civil aviation portfolio at the age of 32 years.
He had lost the Lok Sabha elections from Bhagalpur twice and since then he was not a member of either state legislature or Parliament. He was elected in 2006 by-elections and later in 2009 general elections from Bhagalpur.
Mukesh Sahni, who heads the VIP, had lost the assembly elections in November last year.
