Manjhi's HAM announces candidates for seven Assembly seats

Patna: Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), a constituent of BJP-led NDA, on Sunday announced its list of candidates for seven Assembly seats which included names of four women. At a press conference held at his residence here, former Chief Minister and HAM (S) President Jitan Ram Manjhi released the second list of his party’s candidates giving tickets to four women – Manju Devi (Singheshwar), Nutan Paswan (Masaurhi), Jeba Khatun (Jokihat) and Lovely Anand (Sheohar). [caption id=“attachment_2407386” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Jitan Ram Manjhi. PTI[/caption] Of the remaining three seats, Naresh Sah will contest from Sheikhpura, while Sharim Ali and Mukesh Kumar alias Krishan Yadav will be in the fray from Belaganj and Sherghati respectively, he said. Manjhi had released the first list of 13 candidates of HAM (S) a couple of days ago announcing his own candidature from Makhdumpur in Jehanabad district and that of his son Santosh Kumar Suman’s candidature from Kutumba in neighbouring Aurangabad district. BJP had allocated 20 Assembly seats to Manjhi’s party under the seat-sharing formula with its allies. Manjhi conceded that there was a dispute between his party and BJP over one or two seats, but said that it would be resolved in the due course of time. The former CM claimed that the BJP leadership has given the assurance that it would look into his demand for some more seats for which he would soon meet BJP President Amit Shah to sort out the matter. Manjhi asked BJP to consider giving Chakai and Imamganj seats to HAM (S) and accomodate Poonam Devi, the sitting MLA from Digha Assembly seat in Patna district, in another constituency after BJP announced its candidate Sanjeev Chaurasia from the said seat last night. The ex-Chief Minister said that he was demanding Imamganj seat for his party which has a capable candidate to defeat the sitting MLA and Bihar Assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary from there. Manjhi is seeking Chakai Assembly seat for HAM (S) heavyweight Narendra Singh’s son Sumit Kumar Singh, the sitting MLA from Chakai for which LJP has also staked its claim given that it falls under Lok Sabha constituency of Chirag Paswan, an MP from Jamui. Under the seat sharing deal, BJP will contest 160 of the 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly while NDA allies Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP will fight in 40 constituencies, Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP in 23 and HAM (S) in 20. The Assembly polls will be held in five phases on October 12, 16, 28, November 1 and 5. Counting of votes will take place on November 8. PTI