Patna: Speculation over Bhojpuri film star Pawan Singh’s entry into the Rajya Sabha has been put to rest after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced that it would field its ally Upendra Kushwaha, president of the Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM), for the fifth Rajya Sabha seat from Bihar.
The move is being seen as a setback for Singh, who had mounted a high-profile campaign during the recent Bihar assembly elections and was widely believed to be in contention for a parliamentary berth.
Singh had recently met BJP state president Nitin Nabin, fuelling rumours of a Rajya Sabha nomination. Asked by reporters about his prospects, Singh said: “I took my brother’s blessings. It was a courtesy call. I am a soldier. Whatever the master wants will happen.”
A turbulent political trajectory
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Singh was initially given a BJP ticket from Asansol in West Bengal but returned it before eventually contesting as an independent from Karakat in Bihar. The seat was being contested by Kushwaha as part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Singh’s independent candidature reportedly affected the NDA’s social arithmetic in the Shahabad and Magadh regions, particularly among Koeri (Kushwaha) voters. The Grand Alliance performed strongly in several seats across these areas. Ahead of the subsequent assembly elections, however, the BJP facilitated a rapprochement between Singh and Kushwaha, releasing photographs of their meeting and projecting unity. Singh later campaigned for the NDA.
With five Rajya Sabha seats up for election in Bihar, the BJP has fielded two candidates of its own — Nitin Nabin and Shivesh Ram, who had earlier lost the Sasaram Lok Sabha seat to Congress’s Manoj Ram. For the remaining slot within the NDA quota, Kushwaha has now been chosen.
Kushwaha’s term in the Rajya Sabha was nearing its end, and without renomination he would have exited Parliament in April. Party insiders say that accommodating him was both a strategic and political decision, particularly given regional dynamics in Shahabad and Magadh, where earlier friction between Kushwaha and Singh had cost the NDA support.
Complex arithmetic for the fifth seat
Four NDA candidates are expected to win comfortably. For Kushwaha to secure the fifth seat, however, the alliance may require support from at least three opposition MLAs, potentially through cross-voting.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), led by Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav, is also preparing to field a candidate for the final seat. The opposition’s prospects hinge on support from smaller parties, including the AIMIM and the Bahujan Samaj Party, which together hold six MLAs. AIMIM has indicated it may seek to contest independently while negotiating support.
Within the NDA, the Janata Dal (United) is expected to claim two seats, given its 85 MLAs in the assembly. Of the five vacancies, Ramnath Thakur and Harivansh Narayan Singh are outgoing JD(U) members.
Party sources suggest that Ramnath Thakur is likely to receive a third term, breaking with the JD(U)’s earlier convention of limiting repeat nominations. Harivansh, currently deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha, is not expected to be renominated. Meanwhile, speculation continues that Nitish Kumar’s son, Nishant Kumar, may be nominated by the JD(U), marking his formal entry into parliamentary politics.
For Pawan Singh, however, the latest development signals another pause in his political journey. Once seen as a possible new face for the NDA in Bihar’s upper house, he now finds his parliamentary ambitions deferred as the BJP consolidates its alliance equations ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls.
