Emotionally-charged scenes were played out at RLSP chief and Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha’s press conference, where he was to announce the names of his party’s nominees, with an aspirant Ashok Gupta slumping on the floor and crying aloud after being left out of the race. “Baap re <g data-gr-id="24">baap</g>! loot <g data-gr-id="25">liya</g>,” he said as he lay supine on the floor, giving a hard time to party volunteers, who tried to remove him.
Gupta alleged he had “paid money” to the party, but was still denied a ticket to contest from Narkatiaganj constituency. He, however, later clarified that the money he claimed to have paid to the party was at the time it was formed.
A day after LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan’s son-in-law Anil Kumar Sadhu revolted against the party and threatened to field Dalit Sena candidates against its nominees, he was seen crying on TV over the denial of a ticket on Sunday.
Sadhu heads the Dalit Sena, LJP’s frontal organisation founded by Paswan.
In an apparent reference to the charge of nepotism levelled against the LJP in ticket distribution, Kushwaha said that RLSP had not fielded anyone owing to his/ her family ties. Several of Paswan’s relatives, including brother and nephew, are in the fray.
The LJP, which had declared the names of 12 candidates last week, on Monday announced the names of nine candidates. The party is fielding former MP and strongman <g data-gr-id="31">Kaali</g> Prasad Pandey from Kuchaykot and Vijay Singh from Chakai Assembly seat over which it was at loggerheads with Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM).
Indian, foreign notes seized
During intensified campaign to enforce the Model Code of Conduct, huge quantity of unaccounted Indian and foreign currency and 24,856 litres of illegal liquor were seized from different areas of Bihar on Monday. Additional Chief Election Officer R Lakshmanan said over Rs 11.46 lakh unaccounted Indian currency was seized from three places. Rs 8,25,555 were seized in Vikramganj in Rohtas district, Rs 1,70,650 at Sitamarhi district and Rs 1,50,000 from Aurangabad, he said. Lakshmanan said a man was arrested in Madhubani with 67,00 Nepali currency, 196 Qatar, 10,000 Indonesian currency along with currencies of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bangladesh and Malaysia. The man held with the foreign currencies in Madhubani, has been identified as Mohammad Salim.