NDA releases list of candidates for all 40 seats in Bihar; Shatrughan Sinha replaced by Ravi Shankar Prasad in Patna Sahib

The NDA alliance in Bihar on Saturday released the first list of candidates for 40 constituencies for the Lok Sabha election. The alliance, which comprises of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the ruling Janata Dal (United) in the state, and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), announced a seat-sharing deal that will give the BJP and JD(U) 17 seats each while the LJP will contest on six seats.

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will replace sitting MP Shatrughan Sinha as the Patna Sahib candidate after Sinha rebelled against the saffron party and is all set to fight the election from the same constituency on the Congress’ ticket. Apart from Sinha, most of the sitting MPs have been retained including Union Agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh who will contest the Lok Sabha polls from the Champaran seat, Ram Kripal Yadav who has been given the ticket from Pataliputra constituency.

Others include Rajiv Pratap Rudy who will fight from the Saran constituency and Raj Kumar Singh who has been entrusted with the Arrah seat. BJP leader Giriraj Singh, who won from the Nawada constituency in the 2014 Lok Sabha election has been shifted to Begusarai. According to reports, he had stated a desire to contest from his old seat. However, Nawada has now been given to the Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP.

“The JD(U), which was not with the NDA in the last general election, has repeated its sitting MPs — Santosh Kumar Kushwaha from Purnia and Kaushalendra Kumar from Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s home turf Nalanda,” Zee News reported.

With inputs from agencies