JD(U) releases first list of 57 Bihar candidates
PATNA, Oct. 16 -- The Janata Dal (United) released its first list of 57 candidates on Wednesday for the November Bihar assembly elections, including on four seats said to be allocated to Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party LJP(RV) even as tussle over ticket distribution continues in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar,
According to the broad seat sharing formula for the ruling alliance, JD(U) will contest a total of 101 seats in the 243-member state assembly. Coalition partner, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will contest on equal number of seats.
The list included Bihar ministers Vijay Kumar Choudhary (Shravan Kumar), Ratnesh Sada (Sonebarsa), Madan Sahni (Bahadurour),Maheshwar Hazari (Kalyanpur), Shrawan Kumar (Nalanda) and Sunil Kumar (Bhore).
Former ministers Harinarayan Singh (Harnaut), Shyam Razak (Phulwarisharif -R), Narendra Narayan Yadav (Alamnagar) have also been fielded, though the name of senior JD-U minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav, who filed his nomination from Supaul on Tuesday, is not there in the first list.
The JD (U) had gone ahead with nominating candidates for Sonbarsa, Morwa, Ekma and Rajgir seats, which had gone to LJP (RV) in the seat sharing.
There are 10 seats that are given to Scheduled Caste candidates and four to women. An important aspect of the ticket distribution is 27 new faces, while 19 previous winners have been retained. There are also 11 candidates who lost last time in JD-U's worst ever performance, but have managed to get a ticket, shows an analysis of the list announced. The list, however, does not feature any Muslim candidate. The new faces include Rahul Singh (Dumraon), Atirek Kumar (Kusheshwar Asthan), while JD-U managed to take the Matihani seat for Rajkumar Singh, who won on the LJP-R ticket in 2020 but later switched over to Nitish's party. JD-U working president Sanjay Jha dismissed speculation about dissension in NDA ranks, terming it an attempt by a "hapless opposition". "Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will launch the poll campaign from Samastipur and Darbhanga on Thursday and that should be enough to silence the Doubting Thomases," he said.
Jha said there was total clarity in the NDA and the JD-U. "No decision in the JD-U is possible without the knowledge and consent of Nitish Kumar. He is the face of NDA. But he is a democratic person, not autocratic. He believes in debate and discussion, but every party decision has his approval," said Jha.
A senior leader said that JD-U being a key ally of the NDA had everything sorted out amicably with the BJP, including the seat swaps, but when so many seats have to be decided, there can always be some unease to some candidates. "In the 2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election, when JD(U) contested in an alliance with the RJD, both contested 101 seats each. The same number JD-U is contesting this time and everything is in the knowledge of the CM," he added.
He said JD-U swapped some sitting seats with the BJP to accommodate key leaders. While it left its sitting Tarapur seat for BJP leader and Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary, BJP's sitting Kahalgaon seat is set to go to JD-U's Shubhanand Mukesh, son of former Bihar Congress president Sadanand Singh, who had joined JD-U in 2021 after failing to retain the seat his father had represented eight times. Meanwhile Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) president and Rajya Sabha MP, Upendra Kushwaha - another NDA constituent in Bihar -reached Delhi to meet home minister, Amit Shah, regarding his demands for more seats after his late Tuesday night meeting with junior home minister, Nityanand Rai, remained inconclusive. RLM, which has got six seats, has demanded additional seats such as Mahua constituency, which has been given to Paswan. According to a BJP leader, the LJP (RV) has been asked to put two seats on hold because of the ongoing discussions. As per the seat sharing arrangement, BJP and JD (U) are contesting on 101 seats, LJP (RV) on 29 and six seats each have gone to RLM and Jitan Ram Manjhi's party, HAM-S. "I am going to Delhi. Some thought needs to be done on the decisions that are being made in the NDA. I am going to Delhi to hold talks on the same. I'm hopeful that everything will be fine," Kushwaha said....
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