Patna: Amid intense speculations that the NDA seat-sharing deal has left him infuriated, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday gave away JD(U) tickets, by-passing the party’s earlier practice of announcing the names of candidates at a press conference.
On the other hand, the BJP, which has been put on the same pedestal as the JD(U) for the first time in an Assembly election, announced its first list of 71 candidates.
Springing surprises, it denied a ticket to Speaker Nand Kishore Yadav, a seven-term MLA, while fielding Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary in a direct election after over a decade.
Health and Law minister Mangal Pandey, a member of the legislative council, has also been fielded by the party for the Assembly polls.
It was not immediately known how many JD(U) candidates were given tickets during the day, as the CM’s residence kept bustling with activity, with aspirants turning up after receiving a call from the party chief.
However, prominent among those who did are minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav, state JD(U) president Umesh Singh Kushwaha (Mahnar) and gangster-turned-politician Anant Kumar Singh (Mokama).
Many of them also filed their nomination papers.
There was some drama, too, as Gopalpur MLA Gopal Mandal, who is said to have angered Kumar by remaining in the news for
all the wrong reasons, turned up at the CM’s residence without seeking an appointment. When security personnel tried to prevent him from entering the restricted area, he sat on a dharna, only to be bundled away into a police vehicle hours later.
Mandal’s constituency falls in the Bhagalpur district, where he is also known to have a running feud with local JD(U) MP Ajay Mandal, who sought to resign from the party around the same time, alleging that tickets were being given in his area without heeding to his advice.
In the meantime, rumours spread like wildfire that Kumar, who is known to dump allies and forge new coalitions at will, was angry that his party was not given the lion’s share in the deal struck at Delhi on Sunday.
Leaders in his own party as well as alliance partners were on their feet, trying their best to assert that all was well, lest the situation might be taken advantage of by their adversaries.