Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) chief and Rajya Sabha member Upendra Kushwaha’s son, Deepak Prakash, who is Panchayati Raj Minister in the Bihar government, is set to lose his Cabinet berth as he was not among the nine candidates of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) who filed their nomination on Monday for the June 18 Legislative Council poll.

Mr. Prakash, who was sworn in as Minister on May 7, must get elected to either House of the Legislature within six months to retain his Cabinet berth. There is no vacancy in the Council till March 2027.

Mr. Kushwaha and his son were present in Patna, but did not visit the Vidhan Sabha, where filing of nominations ended at 3 p.m. Addressing mediapersons at 3.30 p.m., the RLM chief said, “This matter is now over. I give my best wishes to all NDA candidates who filed their nominations today. All candidates will win unopposed.”

On Mr. Prakash not making it to the list of NDA candidates, he said, “All NDA leaders have made him Minister. He will remain so as long as they wish. As far as not making him a candidate, you better ask those leaders who made him Minister and released the list of Cabinet Ministers.”

He also denied being upset with the leaders of the NDA over the issue. “No, I am not upset with anyone,” he said.

According to sources, Mr. Kushwaha had rejected the BJP’s offer to merge the RLM with the party, stating that he wanted to keep his party’s identity alive while remaining in the NDA fold.

The nine NDA candidates include four from the JD(U) – Nishant Kumar, Bharti Mehta, Shivani Devi Prajapati, and Lalan Prasad; four from the BJP – Sanjay Mayukh, Pawan Singh, Anil Kumar Thakur, and Sheela Pandit; and Ashraf Ansari from the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas). One of the nine seats is being contested by the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal, which has backed Sunil Kumar Singh for a third consecutive term.

Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, Janata Dal (United) leader and Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president and Union Minister Chirag Paswan, and JD(U) working president Sanjay Jha were among those who turned up at the Vidhan Sabha along with the NDA candidates.

Earlier, the Election Commission announced the schedule for the biennial polls to nine seats of the Bihar Legislative Council, of which one fell vacant upon the resignation of former CM and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar, who is now a Rajya Sabha MP.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) candidate Baidyanath Ram and Congress candidate Pranav Jha filed their nominations for two Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand.