Amidst heartbreak and heartburn, on Monday, two of the NDA’s allies, Rashtriya lok Samata Party (RlSP) and lok Janshakti Party (lJP), announced names of their candidates for the Bihar Assembly polls. Upendra Kushwaha’s RlSP announced names of 17 candidates while Ram Vilas Paswan’s lJP named nine candidates for the Bihar polls.
RlSP will declare names of its nominees for the six remaining seats from its quota in the coming days, while lJP has been left with 19 more seats for which it has to declare candidates. The BJP has declared names of candidates for all but seven of its 160 seats, while Jitan Ram Manjhi-led HAM has named 21 candidates in its share.
However, those who did not get the ticket to contest created sufficient drama to at least get their share of momentary fame. Emotion-charged scenes were visible at the Press conference of RlSP chief Kushwaha. The moment names of candidates were announced, one aspirant Ashok Gupta fell on the floor and cried aloud for being left out of the race.
“Baap re baap! loot liya,” he said as he lay on the floor. He stayed put there for some time as party volunteers 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 the money he mentioned was given for the party fund at the time it was formed.
On Sunday night, lJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan’s son-in-law Anil Kumar Sadhu was seen sobbing inconsolably and wiping tears on TV after denial of ticket, barely a day after he raised a banner of revolt and threatened to field Dalit Sena candidates against lJP nominees. Sadhu heads the Dalit Sena, a frontal organisation of lJP founded by Paswan. Several of Paswan’s kin including brother and nephew are in the fray.
Interestingly, while announcing the names of party nominees, RlSP leaders asserted that none of them had got tickets owing to family ties, in an apparent reference to the charge of nepotism levelled against lJP in ticket distribution.
“Most of them are poor. None of the candidates announced today have got tickes due to family links nor do they have a criminal background. That we will give tickets to candidates without criminal background and only to dedicated workers was a stand conveyed to the NDA leaders,” RlSP chief general secretary Shivraj Singh said.
His assertion came amid criticism of the candidates declared by lJP as many of them are related to the Paswan family or other party bigwigs like Surajbhan Singh or Rajan Tiwari, mafia dons-turned-politicians facing serious criminal charges.
Meanwhile, underlining differences among the NDA parties over seat distribution, a visibly upset Kushwaha said BJP had kept him in the “dark” about putting up its candidate from a seat it had considered allotting to a party candidate and said he would take up the matter with its chief Amit Shah.
The lJP had fielded former MP and strongman Kaali Prasad Pandey from Kuchaykot and Vijay Singh from Chakai Assembly seat over which it was at loggerheads with Jitan Ram Manjhi’s HAM.
Asked about the rebellion by brother-in-law Sadhu, Chirag said the matter would be resolved by the family elders. “I am too junior to him to comment anything publicly. This is a family matter and will be resolved by the elders,” he said. Chirag refused to talk about the resignation of Vaishali lok Sabha MP Ramakishore Singh from the post of party general secretary and chief whip. “When a person is angry, he says many things. As time passes, things will be normalised,” he said, adding winnability criteria was followed while deciding about tickets.