PATNA, May 27 -- The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday announced the schedule for the biennial polls to nine seats of the Bihar Legislative Council and one vacated by resignation of former chief minister Nitish Kumar after his election to the Rajya Sabha. The notification will be issued on June 1, and the last date of making a nomination is June 8, after which the scrutiny will take place on June 9, and the last date of withdrawal is June 11. Polling will take place on June 18, followed by counting on the same day. Of the nine assembly seats, two seats were vacated following election of two members to Bihar Legislative Assembly last year. The term of the nine members is due to expire on June 28. Of these nine seats, the seats held by CM Samrat Choudhary and minister for planning and development Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha are already vacant, as both were elected as MLAs in the Assembly elections. The seven other members whose term ends in June are Kumud Verma, Professor Ghulam Ghous, Mohammad Farooq, Bhisma Sahani, Sanjay Prakash, Samir Kumar Singh and Sunil Kumar Singh. Of the 10 seats going to polls, five seats were held by the JD(U), two each by BJP and the RJD and one by Congress. In the 75 member Legislative Council, NDA has 42 MLCs (BJP-23, JD(U) 18 and HAM-S 1), whereas opposition INDIA bloc has 22 MLCs, Independent 6. Nitish Kumar resigned from his membership in the State Legislative Council on March 30, 2026. Subsequently, he took oath as a member of the Rajya Sabha, marking an end to his two-decade stint in office and paving the way for Choudhary as the new chief minister. The NDA currently holds the support of 201 MLAs in Bihar. Consequently, it is certain that the NDA will secure at least nine Legislative Council seats, while the opposition stands a chance of winning two seats if the opposition remains united. However, if the NDA fields candidates for all 10 seats, the possibility of a 'ploy'-similar to what was witnessed during the Rajya Sabha elections-cannot be ruled out. With JD(U)'s assembly strength rising to 85 in the last assembly polls, a nearly two-fold increase since 2020, the JD(U) seems confident of a good show. Senior JD(U) leader and minister Sheela Mandal told reporters, "We are confident that the NDA will win as many seats as possible in the legislative council. You will get to know more as things unfold". There are already speculations that the JD(U) - a constituent of the ruling NDA- may name CM Kumar's son Nishant Kumar as one of the party's nominee for MLC berth while another big claimant for MLC seat from the NDA is Rashtriya Lok Morcha chief and MP, Upendra Kushwaha's son, Deepak Prakash , who is a minister. CM Kumar's son Nishant was recently sworn in as minister in Samrat Choudhary-led NDA cabinet and is holding health portfolio. Senior JD(U) leaders said that Nishant was most likely to be elected "for a full six-year term" and not from the seat vacated by his father, the term of which would end in 2030. Prakash , who also became panchayati raj minister, is still not a member of either houseand has to be become a member of any house within six months to continue as a minister in the state cabinet, officials said. The BJP, which holds only two of the seats, may go in for a bigger share this time, in keeping with its status as the single largest party in the assembly, where it has 89 MLAs. Besides the one vacated by Choudhary, the other BJP seat is held by Sanjay Prakash alias Sanjay Mayukh, the party's low-key but powerful national media coordinator. State Congress spokesman Rajesh Rathore said, "We are confident that the INDIA bloc will definitely win one seat. We can win one more if we are able to get our act together. But we are determined not to repeat the mistakes of the Rajya Sabha polls held last year". Notably, biennial polls were held for five Rajya Sabha seats in Bihar last month when the NDA made a clean sweep, thanks to two MLAs of the Congress and one from the RJD failing to turn up on the date of voting. He also seemed confident that five MLAs of the AIMIM, headed by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi and one of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's BSP, will support the INDIA bloc next month, just as they had done in the Rajya Sabha elections. Two of the legislative council seats are held by the RJD. One of the RJD MLCs is Sunil Kumar Singh, a key aide of party supremo Lalu Prasad. The Congress holds a single seat. Its MLC Samir Kumar Singh had entered the fray in a last-minute decision when, during the biennial polls in 2020, the party's official candidate Tarique Anwar turned out to be not eligible as his name was not registered in the state's electoral roll....