Bihar: JDU releases list of 115 names, ex-DGP left out

PATNA: JD(U) on Wednesday released the list of all its 115 candidates for the state assembly polls to be held in three phases on October 28, November 3 and November 7.
While RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s ‘samdhi’ Chandrika Rai, who recently joined JD(U), got the ticket for his traditional Parsa seat in Saran district, former DGP Gupteshwar Pandey’s name was missing from the list of 115 candidates released by senior JD(U) leaders here on Wednesday.
Pandey had recently quit the post of DGP and joined the ruling JD(U) in the hope of getting a party ticket from Buxar.
The former DGP’s dream of contesting the assembly polls from his home district was shattered after BJP on Wednesday announced the name of its official candidate, Parashuram Chaturvedi, for the Buxar seat.
JD(U)’s list of candidates was released at a party event addressed by state president Bashishtha Narayan Singh, party leader in Rajya Sabha RCP Singh and its state working president and minister Ashok Choudhary.
JD(U) got a total of 122 seats as part of its seat-sharing deal with BJP. Of the 122, it allotted seven to former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustani Awam Morcha. The rest 115 seats are being contested by JD(U).
JD(U) has fielded altogether 22 women candidates.
A close look at the list reveals that the ruling party has allotted its ticket to at least 10 turncoats including Chandrika Rai, who recently left RJD and joined Nitish Kumar’s party.
Chandrika, son of former chief minister Daroga Prasad Rai and a minister in the RJD government in the past as well in the 2015 Grand Alliance ministry, will be in the fray from Parsa constituency in Saran district which he has represented six times in the past.
Other prominent turncoats who were given the ticket by JD(U) are Jai Vardhan Yadav (Paliganj), Ashok Kumar (Sasaram), Maheshwar Yadav (Gaighat), Faraz Fatmi (Darbhanga Rural), Birendra Kumar Singh (Teghra), Purnima Yadav (Govidnpur), Sudarshan Kumar (Barbigha), Vijendra Kumar Yadav (Sandesh) and former RJD MLC Sanjay Prasad (Chakai seat).
Though former DGP Pandey could not find a place in the JD(U)’s list of candidates, his former colleague Sunil Kumar has been given a JD(U) ticket from his family’s traditional Bhore (reserved seat) in Gopalganj district. Sunil’s brother and Congress leader Anil Kumar was the sitting MLA from Bhore seat.
Former social welfare minister Kumari Manju Verma, whose name was highlighted in the Muzaffarpur shelter home case, has also been given the JD(U) ticket from Cheria Bariyarpur seat in Begusarai district.
Speaker of the outgoing Vidhan Sabha Vijay Kumar Chaudhary has been fielded from his traditional seat Sarairanjan in Samastipur district.
State ministers- Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Ram Sevak Singh, Shrawan Kumar, Jai Kumar Singh, Bima Bharti, Khursheed Firoz Ahmad and Shailesh Kumar, have been repeated from their respective old constituencies. The constituency of education minister Krishna Nandan Prasad Varma has been changed from Ghosi to Jehanabad and food minister Madan Sahni has been moved to Bahadurpur from Gaurabauram in Darbhanga district.
JD(U) working President Ashok Choudhary told TOI that JD(U) president Nitish Kumar had tried to give adequate representation to all communities in the party’s list of candidates. He said the members of extremely backward classes (EBCs) and women have been given special preference in the ticket distribution.