Sulking LJP names 12 candidates, Paswan’s nephew, brother in list

Days after sulking over seat-sharing formulae, the Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) on Friday announced the names of 12 candidates for the Bihar Assembly polls, which has been opposed by party MP Veena Devi.

The first list has the names of LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan’s brother Pashupati Kumar Paras, who is the party’s state unit chief. He will contest the   polls from the reserved <g data-gr-id="25">Alouli</g> seat. Paswan’s nephew Prince Raj is making his political debut from Kalyanpur reserved constituency. Raj is the son of LJP chief’s brother and Lok Sabha MP Ram Chandra Paswan.

The party has also tried to placate former legislator Rajan Tiwari, who faces several criminal cases, by fielding his brother Raju Tiwari from Gobindganj.  The seats for which candidates were declared on Friday are spread over different phases of the elections. The LJP has been allotted 40 seats in the 243-seat Bihar Assembly.

However, MP Veena Devi has threatened to resign over not paying heed to her choice in candidate selection. Notably, Devi is the wife of Surajbhan Singh, who has a clout in Bhumihars, an upper caste group that traditionally backs the BJP.

“What is the use of senior leaders like my husband and me, if we are not consulted in the seat-selection process?  It seems that the LJP has been reduced to just one family and one person,” she said. Declaring the first list, LJP Parliamentary Board chairman Chirag Paswan said there was a consensus with the BJP and other allies on 29 of the 40 seats. He added talks are on to finalise the other candidates.

 The candidates are Ramesh Singh from Vibhutipur, Anil Chaudhary from <g data-gr-id="32">Cheria</g> Beriarpur, Subash Chandra Bose from Sikandara, Engineer Himanshu Kumar from <g data-gr-id="33">Jamaalpur</g>, Amar Kushwaha from Nathnagar, Satendra Singh from Fatuha, Vijay Paswan from Triveniganj, Sarita Paswan from Sonvarsha and Yusuf Khan from Simri Bakhtiyarpur.

 Hindustani <g data-gr-id="56">Awam</g> Morcha (HAM), an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Friday released the names of 13 candidates, with most of them being big leaders of the fledgling party or their family members. As per the seat-sharing agreement with NDA, HAM will contest 20 seats. HAM president and former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi will contest from his old seat Makhdumpur (reserved) in Jehanabad district. Manjhi’s son Santosh Kumar will contest from Kutumba (reserved seat) in Aurangabad. His other son, Devendra Kumar, is expected to contest from Masaurhi (reserved seat) in Patna district. 

HAM Bihar president Shakuni Chaudhary has been made a candidate from Tarapur in Munger. His son Rakesh Kumar would be the HAM nominee from Khagaria. Shakuni Chaudhary’s other son Rakesh Kumar alias Samrat Chaudhary, who was a minister in the Manjhi cabinet, was an MLA from Parbatta in Khagaria district and was expected to get <g data-gr-id="54">nomination</g> from there. Elsewhere, the HAM has nominated legislators who sided with Manjhi in his fight against his mentor Nitish Kumar. Brishen Patel will contest from Vaishali.