Lovely Anand puts Congress in soup

KARAKAT: Former MP Lovely Anand, who had joined the Congress with much fanfare at the Sadaquat Ashram in Patna in January this year, was seen sharing stage with chief minister Nitish Kumar and other NDA leaders on Wednesday, much to the discomfiture of senior leaders of the Grand Old Party.
Lovely shared dais with the NDA leaders, including Jai Kumar Singh and Rameshwar Prasad Chaurasia, at Nokha under the Karakat Lok Sabha constituency in Rohtas district from where Mahabali Singh of the JD(U) is in the fray.Mahabali is pitted against sitting MP and RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha, a friend-turned-foe of Nitish Kumar. Nitish was also present at the election meeting.
Lovely not only shared the stage but also sought votes for Mahabali, who was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2009. Earlier, she had lent her support to the BJP nominee from Sheohar Rama Devi. Lovely, sources said, was not happy with the Congress leadership after she was denied ticket from Sheohar which she had unsuccessfully contested in 2014.
“We are aware of her (Lovely’s) activities and have already informed the party high command. We have also recommended disciplinary action against her for being involved in anti-party activities. The action is still awaited,” state Congress working president Kaukab Quadri said on Thursday.
Quadri said Lovely may have grudge against the party high command for not being fielded as candidate from Sheohar. “The seat went to the RJD under the seat-sharing agreement among the constituents of Grand Alliance. But she should not have behaved like this. This is highly objectionable,” Quadri added.
Quadri said he himself was a strong contender for the Karakat Lok Sabha seat but dropped the idea after the seat went to the RLSP’s kitty. “Lovely had joined the Congress without any condition. The party had considered her candidature and allotted ticket to her from Sheohar in 2009 but she lost to Rama Devi of the BJP,” he revealed.
In 2010, Lovely had unsuccessfully contested the state assembly election. In 2014, she contested from the Sheohar seat as the Bahujan Samajwadi Party nominee but failed to save her security deposits. She was elected as a member of the lower House in 1994 by defeating Kishori Sinha of the Congress.
Her husband Anand Mohan had represented the Sheohar seat twice (1996 and 1998) before he was awarded life imprisonment in the Gopalganj district magistrate G Krishnaiah murder case. Krishnaiah was killed while returning to Gopalganj from Patna via Muzaffarpur in 1994. Mohan is currently serving sentence in the Saharsa district jail.