The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Tuesday formally announced its candidates for all but one of the 23 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar where the party is contesting as a constituent of the opposition Mahagathbandhan.
Party president Lalu Prasad’s daughters – Rohini Acharya and Misa Bharti – are among the RJD nominees.
According to a release issued by RJD state president Jagdanand Singh late in the evening, Acharya will contest from Saran which her father had won many times.
Prasad represented the seat until his disqualification in 2013 when he was convicted in a fodder scam.
Bharti, his eldest daughter who is enjoying her second term in the Rajya Sabha, will try her luck in the Patliputra Lok Sabha constituency.
A party functionary said that a candidate is yet to be announced for Siwan where the RJD had for years been fielding late Mohd Shahubuddin. After Shahubuddin’s disqualification, his widow Heena could never win the seat.
It has been understood that Heena has a strained relationship with Lalu Prasad and his family.
As per a seat-sharing arrangement among partners of the Mahagathbandhan, the RJD has kept 26 of Bihar’s 40 Lok Sabha seats, leaving nine for Congress and five for the Left parties.
The RJD, last week, struck a deal with former Bihar minister Mukesh Sahni, whose Vikashsheel Insaan Party has been given three seats from its quota.
The RJD declared the names of its candidates for 22 seats at one go, including five where polls are scheduled in the first two phases and for which party nominees have already filed their nomination papers.
Sudhakar Singh got an RJD ticket from the Buxar Lok Sabha seat, while Ali Asharaf Fatmi will contest from Madhubani and Surendra Prasad from Jehanabad.
Also on the list is Anita Kumari Mahto from Munger, who got a party ticket, after tying the knot with a dreaded gangster, Ashok Mahto.
Mahto had political ambitions but could not contest on his own because he was convicted in a criminal case.
Names of candidates, including Acharya, Bharti, Sudhakar Singh, Ali Asharaf Fatmi and Surendra Prasad had been known to be approved by the RJD supremo earlier.
Other RJD candidates include Kumar Sarvjeet (Gaya), Shrawan Kumar Kushwaha (Nawada), Bima Bharti (Purnea) and Archana Ravidass (Jamui). All four have already filed their nominations.
The RJD also nominated Jai Prakash Yadava from Banka, Lalit Yadav from Darbhanga and Chandrahas Chaupal from Supaul.
The party fielded Vijay Kumar Shukla from Vaishali, Abhay Kumar Kushwaha from Aurangabad, Shichandra Rai from Hajipu and Shahnawaz Alam from Araria.
Alok Kumar Mehta will contest on an RJD ticket from Ujiyarpur, Arjun Ai from Sitamarhi, Deepak Yadav from Valmikinagar, Ritu Jaiswal from Seohar and Kumar Chandradeep from Madhepura.
The Lok Sabha elections to 40 seats in Bihar will be held in seven phases between April 19 and June 1.
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