Sahni to contest from Khagaria

PATNA: After making efforts to get Darbhanga Lok Sabha seat, Grand Alliance partner Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahni is set to contest from Khagaria.
VIP general secretary Chhote Sahni told this newspaper on Wednesday that Sahni would contest from Khagaria and he would file his nomination papers on April 2. “A parliamentary committee meeting of the party was convened on Wednesday to discuss about the other two party members to contest elections.The party would announce the other two candidatures on March 29,” he said.
Khagaria will go to the polls in the third phase on April 23. Sahni’s party has been given three seats to contest. Though all the constituencies to be contested by the five Grand Alliance partners are yet to be announced, sources said Sahni’s VIP is likely to be given Khagaria, Muzaffarpur and either Jhanjharpur or Madhubani. Sahni floated his party only about five months back.
Sahni (38), a former Bollywood set designer, wanted to contest from Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur and Khagaria. But Darbhanga is still undecided as both Congress and RJD are staking claims over it, sources close to Sahni said.
According to sources, Sahni was asked by the RJD leadership to withdraw his claim over Darbhanga in favour of former state finance minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui. It was Siddiqui who had introduced Sahni to RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav. Both Siddiqui and Sahni belong to Darbhanga.
Sahni had first made headlines before the Bihar assembly elections in 2015. He had claimed to have consolidated the ‘Nishads’ (fishermen) as a political force that could not be ignored by any political party. However, he didn’t contest the assembly elections.
Last week, the Grand Alliance announced a seat-sharing pact in Bihar under which RJD kept 20 out of the total 40 seats while giving 9 to Congress, 5 to Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP and three each to HAM(S) of former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi and the VIP.