BJP releases 102 names, Giriraj Singh shifted to Begusarai from Nawada
The BJP on Saturday expectedly denied ticket to yesteryears’ film star and its sitting MP from Patna Sahib Shatrughan Sinha and instead fielded Information and Technology Minister and Rajya Sabha member Ravi Shankar Prasad from its stronghold.
However, Prasad may face Sinha eventually as the latter could be fielded by the Congress in the Kayastha-dominated seat. For sometime now, Sinha had been critical of both the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a number of issues.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar announced names for 39 of the 40 seats with Union Minister Giriraj Singh being shifted from Nawada to Begusarai despite his opposition. The LJP will contest from Nawada this time round. The alliance, however, reposed faith in all other Central Ministers from the State by fielding them from the same seats that they had won in 2014.
The BJP also announced names of its candidates for Odisha fielding its spokesperson Sambit Patra from Puri and its State president Basant Panda from Kalahandi. In Bihar though, it did not field its spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain from Bhagalpur, which he had unsuccessfully contested last time, thus putting his future in the party under cloud.
The BJP on Saturday announced the names of its 102 more candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, thus now totalling 286 candidates till now.
The candidates have been picked for UP, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Assam, Meghalaya, West Bengal, and Kerala, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
Earlier 17 names for Bihar were announced in Patna. Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda will contest from Khunti, a seat once occupied by BJP veteran Karia Munda.
BJP’s three new names from Uttar Pradesh included Pradeep Choudhary, a Gujjar, from Kairana seat (west UP) which was won by the RLD candidate with the backing of the SP and the BSP in a bypoll in 2018. The bypoll had first tested the efficacy of the Opposition alliance against the BJP. The other candidates from two other seats from West UP which would go to poll in the first phase are Dr Yashwant (Nagina) and Bhola Singh (Bulandshahar).
The BJP has already released of 28 names for UP in its first list when it announced 184 nominees earlier for 20 states. Mafuja Khatun will contest from Jangipur in West Bengal.
The BJP also announced 51 names for Andhra Pradesh Assembly seats, 22 names for Odisha Assembly seats and one Assembly by-election seat in Meghalaya.
The NDA in Bihar, comprising the BJP, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) and Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP, announced the candidates excepting for Khagaria, currently held by the LJP. But it is not clear whether sitting MP Mehboob Ali Kaiser will be fielded again.
Giriraj Singh’s colleagues in the council of Ministers Radha Mohan Singh, RK Singh, Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Ram Kripal Yadav will be fielded from their respective sitting seats of Motihari, Ara, Buxar and Pataliputra respectively. Begusarai, won by the BJP in 2014, fell vacant upon the death of MP Bhola Singh a few months ago.
The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) has fielded Chandan Kumar from Nawada where he will be taking on Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) Vibha Devi - wife of Raj Vallabh Yadav, who lost his membership of the Assembly recently upon conviction in a rape case.
State BJP president Nityanand Rai will be seeking re-election from his Ujiyarpur seat while BJP’s national spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy will be seeking re-election from Saran, where he had defeated former Chief Minister Rabri Devi five years ago. Speculations were rife that he might be dropped this time.
Another BJP national spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Husain was hopeful of a ticket from Bhagalpur, which he had represented in the past but lost the seat to RJD in 2014. The seat has gone to the ruling Janata Dal (United) this time, which fielded Ajay Kumar Mandal as its candidate.
Another surprise inclusion in the BJP’s list was Chhedi Paswan, who will be seeking re-election from Sasaram, which he had won defeating Congress veteran and former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar. Earlier, there were reports that Paswan, who had often been critical of the NDA Government in Bihar, might not be reconsidered for the 2019 polls.
The BJP has also reposed its faith in Pradeep Kumar Singh for Araria, which he had won in 2009 but failed to wrest it back five years later and also during the by-poll last year, necessitated by the death of sitting RJD MP Mohd Taslimuddin.
LJP State president Pashupati Kumar Paras will be replacing his brother and party chief Ram Vilas Paswan in Hajipur as the Union Minister is likely to get a Rajya Sabha ticket with BJP’s backing.
Chirag Paswan, the son of the LJP chief, will be seeking re-election from Jamui. Interestingly, three of six LJP candidates - Chirag, Paras and Ramchandra Paswan (Samastipur) are members of the same family.
The BJP, which had won 22 constituencies in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, conceded five of the seats to the JD(U), which returned to the NDA in 2017 after a brief dalliance with the Lalu Prasad’s RJD..
Other notable changes in the saffron party’s list, with respect to the previous parliamentary elections, include former MLA Gopalji Thakur, who has been fielded from Darbhanga-- a seat the party had won five years ago with Kirti Azad as its candidate. Azad had recently joined the Congress.
In Madhubani, Ashok Yadav replaces his father and sitting MP Hukum Dev Narayan Yadav-- a Padma awardee who has retired from active politics. The LJP has given its ticket from Vaishali to Veena Devi-- a former BJP MLA and wife of JD(U) MLC Dinesh Prasad Singh, who joined Paswan’s party after the announcement.
Her namesake Veena Devi, the wife of mafia don turned politician Suraj Bhan Singh, who is the MP from Munger, has been dropped from the list. Munger is being contested by JD(U) leader and State Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan.
Vaishali is currently represented by another don turned politician Rama Singh, who has been dropped by the LJP this time. All three constituents of the NDA have fielded one woman each.
While BJP’s Rama Devi will be seeking re-election from Sheohar, the JD(U) has fielded MLA Kavita Singh from Siwan Lok Sabha seat.
The ruling party in Bihar has retained its candidates for its two sitting seats - Kaushalendra Kumar (Nalanda) and Santosh Kumar Kushwaha (Purnea).
Another JD(U) candidate is Vijay Manjhi from Gaya, whose mother Bhagwati Devi-- a former stone-cutter-- had represented the seat in 1990s. Besides, the party has fielded State Minister for disaster management Dinesh Chandra Yadav from Madhepura, currently represented by controversial MP Pappu Yadav.
