Bihar polls: JD(U) names 115 candidates; Chandrika Roy contests from Parsa, ex-DGP Gupteshwar Pandey loses out

Patna: RJD president Lalu Prasad’s ‘samdhi’ Chandrika Roy has been nominated by the JD(U) from his traditional Parsa Assembly seat, but name of the former DGP Gupteshwar Pandey is missing from the list of 115 candidates released by the party on Wednesday. The JD(U) released list of the candidates at a press conference addressed by state president Basistha Narayan Singh, party leader in Rajya Sabha RCP Singh and its state working president Ashok Choudhary.

Janata Dal United (JDU) allotted 122 seats for the upcoming #BiharElections, of these Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) to contest on 7 seats. pic.twitter.com/tkBU4FHEcy

— ANI (@ANI) October 6, 2020

The party, headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, has already allocated seven seats out of its quota of 122 seats in the 243-member Assembly to its associate partner Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) of former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi. Roy, father of Tej Pratap Yadav’s estranged wife Aishwarya, had recently switched over to the JD(U) from RJD. Roy, 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 fray from Parsa constituency in Saran district which he has represented six times in the past. The name of the former state police chief Gupteshwar Pandey, who took VRS last month and later was given membership of the JD(U) by the chief minister himself, is missing from the list of nominees made public during the day. Buxar, hometown of Pandey and Shahpur constituency from where it was speculated in the media that he might contest the state polls have gone to the BJP under the seat-sharing formula. The JD(U) got two seats in the Buxar district — Dumraon and Rajpur (reserved SC) — where it named Anjum Ara and state minister Santosh Kumar Nirala, respectively. Kumar’s party has yet not named anybody for the Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha seat which will see by-election on 7 November. The by-poll has been necessitated due to death of JD(U) sitting MP Baidyanath Mahto. There were speculations in the media about chance of the former DGP being fielded from there. Pandey, who had hit the national headlines in the death case of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, hopes now rest on Valmiki Nagar bypolls or a berth in the legislative council in future. Though Pandey could not find place in the JD(U)’s list, his former police colleague Sunil Kumar, who retired as Director General (Home Guards) recently has been nominated by the JD(U) from Bhore (reserved seat) in Gopalganj district. Majority of the ministers and turncoats have been given ticket by the JD(U). Speaker of the outgoing assembly Vijay Kumar Chaudhary will contest from his traditional seat Saraiganj in Samastipur district. Ministers — Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Ram Sevak Singh, Shrawan Kumar, Jai Kumar Singh, Bima Bharti, Madan Sahni, Khursheed Firoz Ahmad, Shailesh Kumar and Krishnandan Prasad Varma have been repeated from their old constituencies. Jaivardhan Singh Yadav, grandson of former Bihar minister and a powerful yadav leader Ramlakhan Singh Yadav has been given ticket from his old seat Paliganj while Faraz Fatmi has been named from Darbhanga rural seat. Both had left RJD and joined JD(U) recently. The two RLSP MLAs — Lallan Paswan and Sudhansu Sekhar — who had crossed over to Kumar’s party have also been renominated. HAM has already named its seven candidates. Jitan Ram Manjhi filed his nomination Wednesday from Imamganj (reserved SC) seat.