Bihar: NDA list of 39 out, Paswan yet to name Khagaria candidate

PATNA: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) of BJP, JD(U) and LJP on Saturday announced candidates for 39 out of the 40 parliamentary seats in Bihar while manifesting synergy in its combined approach and giving representation to various numerically predominant caste groups in its fight against Lalu Prasad’s RJD-led alliance in the state. LJP is yet to announce its nominee from Khagaria represented by its MP Mehboob Ali Kaiser.
As was expected, BJP replaced Patna Sahib MP Shatrughan Sinha with Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and shifted its firebrand leader Giriraj Singh from Nawada to Begusarai where CPI is likely to field former JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar and RJD in a triangular contest.Prasad may face Shatrughan, who has reiterated to contest from the same Patna Sahib seat and is likely to be a Congress candidate this time.
From Nawada, LJP has fielded don-turned-politician Surajbhan Singh’s politically rookie brother Chandan Kumar, instead of the former’s wife and sitting Munger MP Veena Devi.
Keeping caste combination in mind, the NDA list figures 13 candidates from upper castes (7 Rajputs, 2 Brahmins, 3 Bhumihars and one Kayashtha) besides 5 Yadavas, 3 Kushwahas, 3 Vaishyas and 1 Kurmi among 12 from the backward castes, six from scheduled castes (Dalits), including four from dominant Paswans and seven from the extremely backward castes to counter the grand alliance, which has announced its candidates for only four seats going to the polls in the first phase on April 11.
Only JD(U) has fielded a Muslim candidate, Mahmood Ashraf, for the Kishanganj seat while all the three NDA partners have named only one woman candidate each. A local businessman, Ashraf had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 election on JD(U) ticket. Expectedly, the grand alliance partners would field more Muslim candidates to underscore the traditional Muslim-Yadav combination earlier forged by Lalu in the 1990s, besides giving representations to other castes and groups.
Given the fact that CM Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) had contested alone and won only 2 seats in the 2014 parliamentary election and got 17 this time in the seat-sharing deal with BJP, a tough battle lies ahead for the saffron party, which had to cede five of its sitting seats to the new ally. Also, some of the candidates named by JD(U) are not well known faces in political circles.
“Our concerted approach has been to accommodate and give proper representation to various caste categories to neutralize the influence of the grand alliance,” state BJP spokesman Nikhil Anand said.
BJP retained sitting MP Rama Devi from Sheohar while LJP has replaced its MP Rama Singh with Veena Devi from Vaishali. Kavita Singh (MLA and wife of strong man Ajay Singh) will be the JD(U) candidate from Siwan where incarcerated former RJD MP Mohamamad Shahabuddin’s wife Heena Sahab is the likely candidate from the grand alliance.
The NDA break-up clearly shows that BJP has tried to mop up the support of the upper castes who overall account for around 13% of the state’s population. BJP has fielded five Rajputs, two Brahmins, one each of Kayastha and Bhumihar). JD(U) and LJP each have named one Bhumihar and one Rajput candidates.
Knowing well that RJD and its new allies in Upendra Kushwaha, Jitan Ram Manjhi and Mukesh Sahni will represent different dominant caste groups, JD(U) and BJP have concentrated on the backward and extremely backward castes.
The BJP list of candidates has not thrown up any surprises, as the party retained all the five Union ministers — Radha Mohan Singh (East Champaran/Motihari), Ashwini Kumar Choubey (Buxar), R K Singh (Ara), Giriraj Singh (Begusarai) and Ram Kripal Yadav (Patliputra).
Interestingly, BJP retained sitting MPs Chhedi Paswan and Ajay Nishad from Sasaram and Muzaffarpur, respectively, but replaced Kirti Jha Azad with former Benipur MLA Gopal Jee Thakur from Darbhanga. Kirti has now joined Congress. BJP has also retained its state president and MP Nityanand Rai from Ujiarpur and Rajeev Pratap Rudy from Saran. In Madhubani, BJP has fielded Ashok Kumar Yadav, the son of its sitting MP Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav.
JD(U) has retained both its sitting MPs — Santosh Kumar Kushwaha (Purnia) and Kaushalendra Kumar (Nalanda). It has fielded 14 new faces. Water resources department (WRD) minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, who also contested the last parliamentary election, has been fielded from Munger. The party has also given tickets to four other MLAs — Ajay Mandal for Bhagalpur, Girdhari Yadav for Banka, minister Dinesh Chandra Yadav for Madhepura and Kavita Singh for Siwan.
BJP national general secretary and its election in charge for Bihar Bhupender Yadav announced the list in the presence of state JD(U) president Bashishtha Narayan Singh, BJP state president Nityanand Rai and LJP state chief Pashupati Kumar Paras, who will contest from Hajipur, which his elder brother and party chief Ram Vilas Paswan represents. Two other family members of senior Paswan and sitting MPs, son Chirag from Jamui and brother Ramchandra Paswan from Samastipur, will be among the six LJP candidates in Bihar.