A day after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar held a press conference to announce the NDA alliance’s seat-sharing formula, the Janata Dal-United on Wednesday released its list of 115 candidates for the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections.
Ending days of intense speculation, the NDA on Tuesday announced its seat-sharing formula for Bihar assembly polls under which JD(U) will contest on 122 seats and BJP 121 out of a total of 243 seats.
The JD(U) released the list of the candidates at a press conference on Wednesday addressed by state president Basistha Narayan Singh, party leader in Rajya Sabha RCP Singh and its state working president Ashok Choudhary.
— Janata Dal (United) (@Jduonline) October 7, 2020
Notable names in the JDU candidate list included Chandrika Rai, the father-in-law of Lalu Prasad’s eldest son Tej Pratap Yadav and Muzaffarpur shelter case accused Manju Verma.
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.
The conspicuous absence from the list was former Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey, who recently took VRS and joined the JDU.
LALU’S SAMDHI TURNS RIVAL
Chandrika Rai is the father of RJD leader Tej Pratap Yadav’s estranged wife Aishwarya Rai.
He had recently switched over to the JD(U) from RJD after relations between his and Lalu Prasad’s family soured.
Chandrika Rai, 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.
TICKET TO LEADER TAINTED IN MUZAFFARPUR SHELTER CASE
The JDU has also given to former Bihar social welfare minister Manju Verma who was implicated in the 2018 Muzaffarpur shelter case.
She will be contesting elections from the Cheria Bariarpur constituency in Begusarai.
Manju Verma was expelled from JD(U) after the notorious Muzaffarpur shelter case in which she was allegedly involved.
The maintenance of shelter home in which 34 minor girls were sexually abused kept was under the charge of her ministry.
The CBI had conducted a raid on Manju Verma’s residence after allegations were made that her husband Chandeshwar Verma was a regular visitor to the shelter home. Live cartridges were seized by the CBI during the raid.
Verma and her husband were on the run for three months before she was arrested. Manju Verma had to resign from Nitish Kumar government.
She was granted bail in both cases in 2019.