After the seats to be contested by NDA alliance partners was announced on Sunday, union minister and sitting Nawada MP Giriraj Singh did not hide his displeasure and vented his ire against the party leadership.

Giriraj Singh has reportedly made clear his unhappiness to the party’s central leadership over the way the Nawada seat, from where he was elected in 2014, was given to the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).

“Compulsions of seat-sharing may be there. But no other union minister from the state may have to give up his sitting seat,” the firebrand BJP leader said. “I have worked so much to nurture my constituency. Go and ask the state president Nityanand Rai what went wrong,” he said, without hiding his frustration.

“I must have expressed my wish to seek re-election from Nawada to Rai at least 200 times. Five years is a long time and I have become attached to Nawada and its people. Rai had assured me that I would get a ticket from wherever I wanted. Why this (denial of ticket) happened is for him to answer,” Singh said.

As per the seat sharing announcement, Nawada seat has gone to the LJP. The BJP and the JD (U) are contesting on 17 seats each while the LJP is contesting on six seats.

As per the announcement the BJP and the JD(U) will contest 17 seats each and six seats were allotted to the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).

Singh did not commit himself on the possibility of him contesting from Begusarai from where where former JNU president is likely to get ticket from CPI. “I was a party worker, am a party worker and shall always remain a party worker,” Singh said with bitterness.

In 2014, when Singh had expressed his wish to contest from Begusarai, he was given the ticket from Nawada while Begusarai seat went to Bhola Singh, who died last year.

If BJP sources are to be believed, other union ministers from Bihar, Ashwini Kumar Choubey (Buxar), R K Singh (Ara), Ram Kripal Yadav (Pataliputra) and Radha Mohan Singh (Motihari) are likely to be retained from their respective sitting seats.

In New Delhi, LJP MP Chirag Paswan said that he will talk to Singh to soothe him.

First Published: Mar 19, 2019 13:07 IST