Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy Thursday won the Rajya Sabha by-election from Bihar.
The former civil aviation minister, who defeated independent candidate Shiv Shankar Prasad Nishad, was the joint candidate of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which has 145 legislators in the 243-member state assembly. Of these, 90 are from the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and 55 from the BJP.
Rudy got 148 votes in the by-elections and Nishad, who was projected as a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supported independent candidate, got only six votes.
The election for the Rajya Sabha seat became necessary after Captain Jainarayan Nishad left the party.
Rudy was defeated in the last Lok Sabha elections by RJD president Lalu Prasad in Chapra.
Source: Bihartimes.com 27/Jun/2008
